What do estate tax cuts for the wealthy say about Hawaiʻi’s priorities?

Taxes & Budget

Apr 5

For years legislators have talked about the need to better support working families in the state. They’ve taken important steps in recent years, increasing the minimum wage and creating a working families tax credit.

Yet incomes still are not keeping pace with soaring housing prices and other costs, and families that have called Hawaiʻi home for generations are being forced out.

This year, lawmakers had the opportunity to pass multiple proposals that could have made a difference: a state-level child tax credit; a modest rent relief fund to prevent evictions; and universal free school meals for children in public schools.

But lawmakers rejected each of these proposals.

At the outset of the session, legislators were publicly fretting over the state budget and the financial impact of the Maui wildfires. Just weeks ago, legislators asked state department heads to prepare for the possibility of 10-15 percent cuts in spending on education and human services—cuts that would have been devastating for the well-being of Hawaiʻi’s people.

All the while they’ve been advancing Senate Bill 3289 and House Bill 2653, which would deliver a tax cut of up to $43 million for the top 0.2 percent wealthiest families in the state.

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Gavin Thornton

Gavin Thornton joined Hawaiʻi Appleseed in 2012. He became Co-Executive Director in 2016, and Executive Director in 2019. Gavin began his career in the AmeriCorps program in Kona, Hawaiʻi in 2002. Since that time, Gavin’s work has focused on trying to ensure that low-income people have the basic resources they need to build a safe, stable foundation for a successful life.

Gavin serves on the board of the HMSA Foundation. He has previously served on the Board of Directors of PHOCUSED, Partners in Care, the Young Lawyers Division of the Hawaiʻi State Bar Association, the Hawaiʻi District Court Rules Committee, and the Board of TeamChild, an organization that assists youth at risk of involvement in the juvenile justice system.

For his work in subsidized housing, Gavin was awarded the National Housing Law Project’s annual Housing Justice Award. He is a 2002 graduate of the University Of Virginia School Of Law.

What do estate tax cuts for the wealthy say about Hawaiʻi’s priorities?

The last major tax bills still alive this session would cut income and estate taxes

Housing bill not fully developed

Hawaiʻi Appleseed