Designed to help people understand the State Budget enough to become more effective participants in conversations about it - with each other, and with our lawmakers. Presented at a workshop, open to the public, at the Hawaii State Capitol, January 2013.
12. 10 things recapped
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Most of our money comes from the General Excise Tax on all goods and
services; little from corporate income taxes
In most areas we spend less or about the same as other states, e.g.,
education, health, transportation. Social Services is an exception (we
spend more than other states).
Comparatively small parts of the budget are devoted to things we may
consider really important like the environment and young kids
We have a big future challenge in our debt and unfunded promises to
pension and health benefits for retired public workers
It’s a bigger problem for us than most other states because of our longer
life expectancy and our larger commitment to public workers
Increases in retirement and health benefit spending plus increasing
Medicaid costs are predicted to drive annual deficits of $300M per year
starting in the next biennium
The Governor has proposed his budget and the Legislature is now
considering it (first House then Senate)
You can make an impact by contacting the chairs of the House Finance
and Senate Ways & Means Committees and sharing your views on where
you wish we would save and spend
If you live in the districts of the Chairs of these committees, you have a
special responsibility to understand the budget
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13. 10. Take action…
(a) take 5 min to play with the interactive budget map:
www.kanuhawaii.org/code/treemap.tpl
(b) identify 1 thing you would invest more in and 1 thing you’re
willing to make a sacrifice
(c) email your views to chairs of the budget committees:
Rep. Sylvia Luke (repluke@capitol.hawaii.gov)
Sen. David Ige (sendige@capitol.hawaii.gov)
Volunteer to help Kanu educate communities by going door-to-door,
making presentations, or sharing content online with friends: Cherilyn
Inouye, Community Organizer, cherilyn@kanuhawaii.org