Honolulu's severe housing crisis is being exacerbated by a growing trend of vacant homes purchased as investments by non-residents. To reverse this trend, Hawaiʻi Appleseed recommends a flat tax of 3–5 percent on empty homes.

The biennial budget analysis product is a core service provided by Appleseed researchers.

Hawaiʻi lawmakers have an opportunity to tailor the sales tax on real property so that it reinvests nonresident wealth into our island communities through affordable housing development.

Hawaiʻi lawmakers can improve the economic health of our communities by re-balancing the state’s upside-down tax code.

The 50-year advocate for the low-income community and founder of Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice will retire on August 31, 2019.

The state’s high cost of living and low wages has made recovery slow and painful for many families.

An Appleseed-commissioned poll highlights the extent to which working families are now struggling to get by in Hawaiʻi.

Now is the time for Hawaiʻi to invest in its residents and businesses by creating a state refundable EITC that puts dollars back into workers’ pockets and into the cash registers of local business.