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Democrats override Lingle's vetoes to balance state budget
Jump to full article: Honolulu Advertiser, 2009-05-09
Author: Peter Boylan Peter Boylan and Suzanne Roig Advertiser Staff Writers
Intro: The dramatic final week of the state legislative session wound down yesterday with Democratic lawmakers following through on a promise to override Gov. Linda Lingle's vetoes of four measures that will increase taxes to balance the state budget.
Hawai'i now has the highest income tax rate for top bracket earners in the country, and visitors paying $200 a night for a hotel room will pay an additional $4 in taxes by 2011.
Leveraging their overwhelming majority in the state Senate and House of Representatives, Democratic legislators increased state income taxes on the wealthy, the hotel-room tax, the conveyance tax on the sale of luxury and second homes, and a tax on tobacco products, such as chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco and cigars. . . .
* The tax on the wholesale price of tobacco products, such as chewing tobacco or pipe tobacco, will rise from 40 percent to 70 percent starting at the end of September. The state's tax on the wholesale price of cigars would increase from 40 percent to 50 percent, and smaller cigars that resemble cigarettes would be taxed like cigarettes.
* The state's 10-cent-per-cigarette tax will rise by 2 cents in July, in addition to the 1-cent increase already scheduled, bringing the tax to 13 cents.
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