Bills would require WH hopefuls to release tax returns ADVERTISING Bills would require WH hopefuls to release tax returns HONOLULU (AP) — Lawmakers in Hawaii and several other states want to prevent presidential candidates from appearing on their states’ ballots
Bills would require WH hopefuls to release tax returns
HONOLULU (AP) — Lawmakers in Hawaii and several other states want to prevent presidential candidates from appearing on their states’ ballots unless the candidates release their tax returns.
They’re responding to President-elect Donald Trump’s decision not to release his tax returns during the presidential campaign, breaking decades of precedent.
The Hawaii bill would require candidates to release five years of federal and state tax returns to qualify for the ballot, state Rep. Chris Lee said Wednesday. Similar proposals are circulating in California, Massachusetts and New Mexico.
Lee consulted with lawyers who assured him it’s legal, and if the bill passes it will undergo a thorough review from the state attorney general, he said.
Lee is still working out details on the Hawaii bill, but he plans to include a way to make the tax returns public. In the Massachusetts bill, that state’s Secretary of State would be required to make the tax returns public within a month of each vote.
California state Sens. Scott Wiener and Mike McGuire are planning to introduce similar legislation.
Island Air getting bigger, faster plane
HONOLULU (AP) — Island Air plans to start flying a faster, larger plane within Hawaii, putting it in a position to grab a bigger piece of the interisland market.
The Honolulu-based company’s first Q400, a turboprop plane made by the Canadian manufacturer Bombardier, seats more people — 78 — and is faster than Island Air’s existing aircraft, the 64-passenger ATR 72. The aircraft Island Air is leasing is new, which should pose fewer maintenance problems than the airline’s existing 24-year-old planes.
The company aims to swap out its entire five-plane fleet by the summer.
Island Air is Hawaii’s second largest carrier. But it’s much smaller than Hawaiian Airlines, which carries 84 percent of passengers flying between the islands. CEO David Uchiyama says Island Air had just 6 percent of the interisland market in the third quarter.
The company currently flies from Honolulu to Lihue, Kahului and Kona. Uchiyama said it aims to begin flights to Hilo this year.
The Q400 is 30 percent faster than conventional turboprops.
Public worker pension shortfall grows to $12B
HONOLULU (AP) — The shortfall in Hawaii’s public employees’ pension fund has grown to more than $12 billion, meaning taxpayers could have to pay an additional $385 million a year to make up for the budget gap.
A study released this week by an independent actuary shows the Employees’ Retirement System pension fund deficit was up about $4 million from last year.
ERS Executive Director Thom Williams said the pension plan needs the $385 million additional contribution from taxpayers each year to stay afloat. But getting that additional revenue would mean taxpayers would be putting a total of $1.1 billion toward the plan each year.
Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Jill Tokuda, D-Kailua-Kaneohe, said the new figures were “truly overwhelming.”
“It can rain money out of the sky, it still cannot account for these kinds of payments,” she said.
Dallas-based actuary Gabriel Roeder Smith &Co. said without the taxpayer payment increases, it would take the fund until 2082 to become whole. The pension plan could be fully funded in 2042 with the added $385 million from taxpayers.
A bill being introduced by ERS to help reduce the budget shortfall would increase annual employer contribution rates for police and fire workers to 42.5 percent from the present 25 percent of an employee’s wages beginning July 1. It also seeks to raise employer contribution rates for general employees to about 25 percent from 17 percent.
The pension plan provides retirement, disability and survivor benefits to more than 120,000 active, retired and inactive state and county employees.
About $1.5 billion of the added shortfall is because of life expectancy changes with ERS members living longer. Another $300 million of the shortfall comes as a result of salaries increasing more than anticipated.
