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By Keli‘i Akina
Hawaii’s Legislature handed 274 payments this 12 months — out of greater than 3,000 launched. However thus far, Gov. Josh Inexperienced has signed solely a handful of them.
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That leaves a variety of payments for him to learn and resolve their fates. So within the spirit of “E hana kākou” (“Let’s work collectively”), I want to supply some suggestions that ought to make the governor’s job just a little simpler.
>> First, he ought to signal SB674, which might enable Hawaii to affix the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact and make it simpler for out-of-state medical doctors to apply in Hawaii.
Attracting extra medical professionals to Hawaii isn’t just a good suggestion, it’s an pressing want. Our state is brief nearly 800 physicians, and that has precipitated monumental struggling and inconvenience for Hawaii residents in want of healthcare, particularly in rural areas and on the neighbor islands.
The physician compact already consists of 37 different states, and with only a stroke of the governor’s pen, medical doctors from each one in all them would have the ability to relocate to the islands with out having to leap by way of any of Hawaii’s tough, costly and time-consuming regulatory hoops.
I understand becoming a member of the interstate licensure compact for medical doctors wouldn’t remedy all of Hawaii’s healthcare issues, however it will be an necessary first step.
>> Subsequent, Gov. Inexperienced ought to signal SB1437, a tax reform invoice that may enable “pass-through entities” similar to partnerships and S companies to deduct their state earnings tax liabilities from their federal earnings tax liabilities. Provided that Hawaii is taken into account one of many worst states for companies and entrepreneurs, this is able to be a easy technique to decrease the tax burden on native companies — and for free of charge to the state!
The apply has been OK’d by the IRS and is already allowed in 29 different states, saving companies in these states billions of {dollars}.
>> On the “thumbs down” facet of the ledger, Gov. Inexperienced ought to veto SB945, a heavy-handed licensing scheme that might probably run cryptocurrency corporations in Hawaii out of enterprise.
Among the many invoice’s many main flaws, it will give the Division of Monetary Establishments director immense energy to rewrite the legislation at will. Not solely would this create a possible battle with any federal rules, however it will put an excessive amount of energy within the arms of an unelected bureaucrat and create a paralyzing stage of regulatory uncertainty for cryptocurrency corporations hoping to do enterprise in our state.
>> I additionally want to see the governor veto HB525, one other large invoice that might derail the expansion of cryptocurrency in Hawaii.
A lot of the invoice considerations amendments to the state’s Uniform Industrial Code, however one part would exclude all digital currencies from the definition of “cash,” until they have been created by a authorities. This, after all, would go away all the opposite cryptocurrencies out within the chilly within the case of business cost disputes.
Except for these 4 payments, there’s the matter of the Legislature’s proposed finances, which stands to extend common fund spending by 23% over final 12 months and exceed the state’s authorized spending restrict by greater than 10%, or greater than $1 billion.
My hope is that Gov. Inexperienced will use his line-item veto energy to trim again this large spending overreach, together with the $200 million “slush fund” that the Legislature appropriated to him, which fits towards our beliefs of transparency and authorities accountability.
Gov. Inexperienced has till June 26 to submit his intent-to-veto listing to the Legislature, however I hope this brief listing provides him a head begin on find out how to cope with all of the payments that stay on his desk.
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Keli‘i Akina is president and CEO of Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.
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