KAHULUI — Officials on Maui are moving quickly to implement a new tax on tourists.
KAHULUI — Officials on Maui are moving quickly to implement a new tax on tourists.
The move comes after state lawmakers overrode a veto by Hawaii Gov. David Ige this week.
Hawaii lawmakers overrode Ige’s veto of a bill that overhauls how the state funds the Hawaii Tourism Authority and allocates tourism tax revenue to the counties.
The new law allows Hawaii’s counties to collect a 3% tax from visitors staying at hotels and other short-term rentals.
Before the new law, the state collected a 10% hotel tax and distributed a share to each county. Now, the counties can levy their own surcharge to the tax and keep the money for local needs.
The bill would stop funding the tourism agency with money raised by the transient accommodations tax. Lawmakers intend to pay for the agency with money from the general fund, though for the current fiscal year they appropriated federal coronavirus relief funds.
“This will help tremendously,” said Maui County Council Chair Alice Lee.
Lee said that will bring Maui nearly triple the revenue, Hawaii News Now reported Thursday.
“Instead of $23 million, we’ll probably receive in the neighborhood of $50 to $70 million,” Lee said.
Maui has seen a sharp increase in tourism since pandemic restrictions have eased.
Does the 3% impact the tourist industry by turning them away and not welcoming them to Hawai’i? I don’t see how the tourist will notice.
Not that I would care about this minor detail.
Of course the tourist will notice. I charge per night. A real estate company collects 25% for legally required management. Vrbo collects 3% from me (in addition they charge the tourist a $500 fee directly and charge me an annual fee of $500). State tax, excise and TA amount to 15%. Now add an extra 3%. The local cleaner gets over 10%. The percent being added to each nightly rental is 56%. Only the cleaner is performing a service visible to the tourist.
Hotels have already added this tax. Despite local officials being dumbos and not qualified to input anything in the computer. I’m shocked what the county councilmen does then.
It is a state wide system. About how much extra? $10.05 dollars and 5 cents. I came up with this.
Typical Democratic Party policy. Let’s just add more taxes to fix our problems to continue to fund our welfare state. No body here wants to work , they’d rather collect unemployment and food stamps. This type of politics creates a new generation of self oppressed , victim mentality weaklings. No more taxes! Better manage our state and county funds and reduce taxes to stimulate the economy. Our politicians are failing us yet again.