HAWAII is divided into two camps, those who think Lowell Kalapa should be governor and those who think the feisty 47-year-old director of the Hawaii Tax Foundation should be set out with the tide. Hawaii needs Kalapa’s
Tax FoundationIf you are Kalapa, however, the worry today isn't so much what people think about you, but why people are not thinking about helping Hawaii's economy.
"I'm telling my social worker friends, they better start thinking about figuring out how to produce jobs. Their programs won't have any money without jobs and taxes," he says.
The worry about jobs perhaps should be more of a concern to Kalapa, who presides over one of Hawaii only independent think tanks. Today the Tax Foundation, a financially conservative outfit dedicated to bettering Hawaii's tax climate, is teetering on the brink of collapse.
The Foundation was originally funded largely by the sugar and pineapple growers. When those two industries failed in Hawaii, the support for the foundation was withdrawn. Later the Chamber of Commerce helped out, but then Kalapa opposed a planned excise tax increase to pay for a Honolulu mass transit plan. The chamber withdrew its funding and the foundation has been barely holding on.
Amazingly, this hasn't caused Kalapa, who can be a one-man roasting committee, to flinch from his criticism of the Legislature and the government's tax policies.
"If nothing else, we are pointing out the deficiencies in government, said Kalapa, who studied both economics and politics but actually got a degree in journalism.
When Gov. Ben Cayetano announced his seven-point plan for economic revival, reporters were waved off when they tried to get comment from the business community. Eventually, they called Kalapa.
"When I criticized the seven-point plan, no one would talk, so after I criticized it, I got all these calls from Merchant Street telling me 'thanks for saying it.' "
Now that the foundation is in trouble, some in the Hawaii business community are starting to worry. As one Chamber of Commerce leader told me: "Kalapa not only has the memory to recall what happened years ago, he can explain why it happened."
In fact, he started working in the Legislature as a Republican researcher in 1973. A fellow researcher was Donna Ikeda, who had yet to run through an entire cycle of running as a Republican and Democrat.
Legislators, who also find themselves blasted by a Kalapa broadside for failing to figure out the economic impact of a piece of legislation, quietly admit Kalapa is one of the most powerful voices at the state Capitol.
His expertise in helping to draft legislation and to clearly speak his mind is valued.
"I never felt any reservations about speaking my mind. That is what I was taught. That's why I probably would be a miserable failure in the business world," he said.
THE Tax Foundation also reviews each tax bill introduced at the Legislature. This year more than 600 pieces of legislation were analyzed. While all legislators and business people don't need to know about each bill, the important committees dealing with the state budget listen carefully to the Tax Foundation's suggestions.
"The chamber called us strident, but we are outspoken only when we know we are correct in our analysis," he said.
Kalapa already has been discussing job offers in California, but there are signs that there will be a renewed effort to finance the foundation.
If he leaves and the foundation does fold, the result would be both a poorer economy and a poorer legislative product.