Hawaiʻi lawmakers face tough choices amid pandemic recession

Beth Giesting, the director of the Hawaii Budget and Policy Center, said the state should avoid draconian cuts because the economy needs government spending to keep going at a time when the private sector is struggling.

She argued that cuts to public budgets only deepen and prolong recessions.

“We want them to understand that any dollars they cut are magnified in terms of the economic impact,” she said of lawmakers. To help pay for spending, she favors tax increases on high income earners and capital gains and possibly temporarily eliminating some tax exemptions and credits.