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Tax Director Speaks at December Sunrise
Kurt Kawafuchi, State of Hawaii Director of Taxation, speaks at the final Small Business Hawaii Sunrise Networking Breakfast for 2006, 7am, Thursday, December 28, in the Pineapple Room, Macy’s, Ala Moana.
Kawafuchi will outline the new “1/2% GE Tax Surcharge Impact on Business.” The total tax on O’ahu will be 4.5%. He’ll inform you as to how the surcharge will work, how it is be reported and what transactions are exempt. You need to know this information now.
For years, Small Business Hawaii was in the forefront of opposition to this new 12.5% tax increase, to pay for rail, effective January 1, 2007. (The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii supported the tax increase). The Governor declined to veto this, the largest tax increase in Hawaii’s history. Now, sadly, business will have to learn how to live with and pay this tax.
Last month’s speaker was Charles Memminger, of The Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Members enjoy a Free exhibit area. The public is welcome and parking is free. Cost: only $20 for members and their guests who pay in advance; $30 for non-members and at the door if space available. Send in the reservation form and your payment today.
SEND IN THE REGISTRATION FORM WITH YOUR PAYMENT
Halloween At NextStep Shelter
A Halloween Birthday Holiday was celebrated at the NextStep Shelter on October 28 by the staff and volunteers of HawaiiReporter-.com and Small Business Hawaii. Volunteers provided the children with face painting, free popcorn, goodie bags, snacks, an air jumper and just plain old fun. SBH's Darlyn Evangelista hands out ³goodie bags² in the photo above. More photos at the links below (BuzzNet).
Click on the images above to see the photo album
Poverty Rights Advocates Should Rally Against Rail
by HonoluluTraffic.com
The people who usually advocate for poverty rights are remarkably absent from the rail transit debate in Hawaii and elsewhere.
Yet the lower income residents are those who are usually hurt by expensive rail projects.
First, a hike in the GE tax is a hike in the most regressive tax we have; it harms lower income folks disproportionally more than those with higher incomes. Basic rent and food and other necessities are all subject to the GE tax.
Second, in order to boost rail ridership numbers, transit officials routinely change routes so that they dead end at rail stations. So people who may have a straight shot to work on TheBus may find themselve with a bus/rail/bus journey.
Third, rail transit chews up so much money that transit officials tend to cut bus service rather than rail service. A lawsuit was won on these grounds by the NAACP a few years ago. They found that Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority was spending 70 percent of its budget on the 6 percent of riders who used rail while only spending 30 percent of its budget on the 94 percent who used buses. And, of course, the rail riders were the more affluent ones.
The lawsuit called Labor/Community Strategy Center v. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) resulted in a court-ordered Consent Decree, commiting MTA to agree to invest over $1 billion in the bus system. It was the largest settlement in civil rights history .
From the story: “The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., served as lead counsel in the case. Environmental Defense advised the plaintiffs and the class on transportation, economics and equity issues. Institutional plaintiffs included the Labor/Community Strategy Center, the Bus Riders Union, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates. The settlement was supported by Republican Mayor Richard Riordan, the libertarian Reason Foundation, transportation experts from UCLA, and free-market economists and efficiency advocates from the University of Southern California. It was settled through mediation before Donald Bliss, a Republican and former Acting General Counsel to the Department of Transportation. Clearly, it would be hard to accuse such diverse interests of sharing an ideological or ethnic bias in the transportation dispute. Their historic victory highlights the need for broad-based coalitions to build healthy communities and to advance race relations.”
December 2006 SB News
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Copyright 2006 Small Business Hawaii. Last update: December 15, 2006
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