Issue Position: Cost of Living

Issue Position

Public voting records prove that, in my previous years in the State Senate, I never once voted for a tax increase. Instead, I have called for audits of public spending and suggested ways of mitigating government costs and spending increases. Each year, I have published an alternative state operating budget and a CIP capital improvement budget showing ways of accomplishing priority items at a lower price to taxpayers in the state.

Hawaiʻi's cost of living is dictated, in large part, by government policies and increased spending (for example, the state wastes a great deal of money on administrative spending for the Department of Education). An affordable standard of living is difficult to achieve when the government continually proposes new and expensive projects at the expense of taxpayers. It seems necessary to curtail government spending, reduce the burden of state taxes, and more carefully examine any new projects, especially in light of how difficult it is to manage current projects. Any project the state invests in requires ongoing maintenance spending beyond its initial cost, and these all add up to push the overall budget ever upward. Reducing these costs will put less of a burden on working families by reducing their taxes, allowing them to bring more of their earnings home.

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