UHERO report: Slowing tourism, tariff-fueled inflation push Hawaii closer to recession<\/a><\/p>\nIt\u2019s a domino effect all the way from Washington D.C. UHERO said decision on U.S. trade policies have triggered inflation, leading to a slowdown in Hawaii tourism.<\/p>\n
Federal funding cuts could also strip Hawaii\u2019s health care industry of $400 million in Medicaid spending.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour health condition potentially worsens, you don\u2019t have health insurance, you end up in the ER, so that drives up costs,\u201d Bonham said. But if you don\u2019t have health care, then it makes it even harder to get back to work. And so there\u2019s spillover effects on the broad economy.”<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also a big worry for the Hawaii Appleseed Center. The group says on top of all that, the state\u2019s general excise tax makes it even harder for low-income families to weather even a mild recession.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time dollars are changing hands, the tax gets levied,\u201d said Appleseed Center executive director Will White. \u201cIt generates a lot of revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group said the GET accounts for more than half of the state\u2019s revenue. And since everyone pays the same GET tax rate, the budget study shows that lower-income households give up about 14% of their earnings to state and local taxes, compared to about 10% for households that make over $278,000 a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s why we consider it to be largely regressive because it takes a higher portion of the lower-income families, or those lower-income households\u2019 income, relative to higher income earners,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a reminder that the economic well-being of Hawaii families is tied to what happens in both our State Capitol and the U.S. Capitol. And having tourism as Hawaii\u2019s top industry makes the state especially sensitive.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really dependent on what happens in the U.S. But when the U.S. goes badly, that\u2019s what pulls Hawaii into recession, even if the U.S. doesn\u2019t necessarily enter a recession,\u201d said UHERO assistant professor Steven Bond-Smith.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s a downturn in the economy and tax revenue goes down, it then further hinders the state\u2019s ability to be able to respond adequately to bridge those gaps that are being left by the federal government,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A new budget study from the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice shows…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":259137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,79,47557,136043,10405,135386,67,132,135387,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-259136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-federal-cuts","11":"tag-hawaii-appleseed-center-for-law-and-economic-justice","12":"tag-recession","13":"tag-uhero","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-university-of-hawaii-economic-research-organization","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}