10 days in Hawaii is
enough to see state’s flawsHigh taxes, bureaucratic hassles,
By William Taylor
unreasonable laws and restrictions take
pleasure out of paradiseSacramento, Calif. -- I recently returned from a property-shopping trip to the Big Island, and my wife and I are now purchasing four acres there. I've been studying and actively following Hawaiian history, culture and politics for 10 years now, have made five trips to various islands and was married on Molokai in 1993.
Considering the unimpressive progress that EVERYBODY seems to be making on figuring out how to get Hawaii's economy going again, I would like to share some observations that I made during the course of a mere 10 days in the Hilo area. What I discovered was a real eye-opener.
1) A Kona couple reluctantly moved back to the mainland recently. Why? The husband has medical problems and needs a series of surgeries. The GET on the first operation was $6,000 and his medical insurance would not pay it. Rather than continue to incur that kind of expense, they moved back to the mainland, taking their substantial retirement income with them.
2) The deceased woman who owned the property that we are buying lived in California; the only thing that she owned in Hawaii was those two lots. Probate was completed in California. Hawaii now insists that the lots also go through probate in Hawaii. And of course the taxes will be based on the higher appraised value at the time she died, not on what they are actually being sold for.
3) The title company won't accept a certified check from a non-Hawaii financial institution. Nope, those large mainland banks can't be trusted; the title company wants to do a wire transfer of the funds.
4) If we want to do owner-builder construction of our home on Hawaii, we can't do any of the wiring or plumbing ourselves. We have to hire a licensed contractor, even though county inspectors will approve the work.
5) A community association in a Puna subdivision was given a free catchment tank for its office. But it can't afford to use it. The association has to get a permit to move it, even though it will be transported entirely over private roads. Then it has to have a licensed contractor remove the rust inside (which volunteers could do perfectly well). Then it has to get a new engineer's stamp on it (same tank, same setup). And on and on...
6) My niece (a 20-year-old hippie girl) thought it would be "cool" to go to the Big Island for a while. She found a "job" outside of Kapoho where she trades work for her room. After only two months, she was already getting food stamps. She's having a great time; it's certainly "cool" to get free food so quickly.
7) The friends whom I stayed with have been trying, without success, to hire someone to do odd jobs around their place for $10 an hour. Everybody tells them that they are too busy working. How can that be if the economy is so bad?
The reason is that many people are working and getting paid "under the table" to avoid a) excessive taxation and b) an out-of-control local bureaucracy. Hawaii's unemployment rate may be lower than the state thinks!
I work for local government in Sacramento, so I'm used to a certain degree of government foolishness. But I was appalled at how bureaucratic, over-regulatory and unfriendly the government structure in Hawaii is to small businesses, homeowners and individuals.
The state MUST put pressure on local government (and itself) to make some attitude adjustments before any positive changes can take place. It's far too difficult and frustrating to create economic activity, and I found that out in 10 days!
Perhaps many people working on the problem are somewhat myopic because they don't see how local government does things off-island. I think it's time to take a look around and make it easier for the average citizen -- the "little guy" -- to get things done.
Hawaii's economic future may depend on it.
William Taylor is a government worker
residing in Sacramento, Calif.