How expanding the state Earned Income Tax Credit to make it refundable can boost the economy and provide opportunity to Hawaiʻi’s working families.

Tax credits can fine-tune the tax system to promote social welfare and encourage economic activity by delivering targeted tax relief.

Policymakers have shaped an economy that relies far too much on extractive tourism that provides little to residents in return. To reverse these trends, we need a dramatic shift in our public policy. 

40 Years of Rising Costs & Stagnant Wages.

In the context of COVID-19, correctional facilities are public health disasters waiting to happen.

Hawaiʻi’s post-COVID-19 economy should be one informed by an understanding that the old economic order had been failing many Hawaiʻi residents for decades.

Policy and spending decisions to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on Hawaiʻi and its people.

Creating our state Earned Income Tax Credit was an important achievement. Now it’s time to make the state EITC refundable and permanent.

Looking back at the Great Recession, 2007–09.

Not only would a minimum wage increase help to improve the living standards of affected Hawaiʻi workers, but it would also strengthen local businesses, as low-wage workers plow almost every additional dollar of earnings back into the local economy.

Hawaiʻi counties have an opportunity to model vacation rental unit regulations off successful ordinances from around the world. The stakes are high: our housing crisis is among the worst in the nation.