[cryptnoob]

     Meanwhile, Hawaiian taxpayers face a $1.2 billion budget 
     deficit, which is being addressed in part with deferred 
     state tax refunds and deferred Medicaid reimbursements.

Hawaii doesn't have a sales tax. It's a tourist destination without sales tax. How silly is that? I get so tired of these "but that's a regressive tax!" wails and nashings of teeth.

For any tourist destination, a sales tax is beautiful, because you get to tax people who don't live there. There is a danger that given two tourist destinations of equal attractiveness, the one without the sales tax may draw more tourists, but this isn't a problem for Hawaii. Where are you going to go, if you want beaches and sun and live on the west coast? Hawaii or Mexico, and there's a lot of people who go to Hawaii that wouldn't be comfortable with Mexico, so it's off the table. For Hawaii to tax their own people but not tourists seems like a strategically poor move.

A homeless program that cost $2M was not nearly as interesting to me as the fact they, of all states, had a budget deficit.

[akgerber]

It appears Hawaii has a tax essentially equivalent to a sales tax: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_State...

They also have a hotel tax and a rental car tax.

[shawndrost]

Don't we? Because every time I buy something, I pay an extra 4%. (Apparently, it's called a General Excise Tax.) An additional 6% is levied on hotel rooms as well.

[whalesalad]

I lived in Honolulu for 3 years up until about a week ago. Sales tax is 4.5%.

[cryptnoob]

You don't have a sales tax, in that the consumer is not taxed. Instead, you have an excise tax, where the business is taxed. Many businesses will show how much they inflated their prices in order to pay their excise tax, and show this as a line item on the receipt. That's their choice. That doesn't make it a sales tax.

Again, Hawaii is taxing it's own people, instead of it's tourists. In self-defense, many of those businesses pass that tax on to the tourists and itemize it on their receipts, but many don't.

[barry-cotter]

The effectice payee of a tax has nothing to do with who officially pays it and everything to do with who wants it, or wants shot of it, more badly.

The impact of this excise tax is exactly the same as a sales tax.

[bitwize]

Amen, brother. Stuff in Hawaii is so expensive anyway, if you tack on a Massachusetts-level sales tax they won't even feel it.

[bebop]

You are incorrect, Hawaii does indeed have a sales tax, something around 6-7%