Taxing patience as
well as pocketbooksA state senator may have inadvertently revealed an important insight about taxes. Brian Taniguchi (D, Moiliili-Manoa) noted at a recent hearing that no one wants to raise taxes when the economy is doing well, and similarly, raising taxes during tough economic times is not a good idea either. You think he's on to something?
His comment came during a session in which local economists reflected on how the state government can collect more of your money -- er, I mean, how to improve the state's ability to "share in the wealth" created by a robust Hawaii economy. It's not your wealth, mind you. Just because you worked at a job, produced a good or service, and in turn used your wages to reinvest in the local economy does not mean that the "Hawaii economy" is anything other than one big trough that you happily contribute to, and from which the state hog -- uh, government -- happily feeds.
Jason Seaborn
jseaborn@starbulletin.com
See the Columnists section for some past articles.