{"id":2978,"date":"2020-06-19T13:16:39","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T23:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/?p=2978"},"modified":"2020-06-19T13:18:35","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T23:18:35","slug":"grassroot-institute-of-hawaii-introduces-state-budget-tool-for-you-to-try-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/?p=2978","title":{"rendered":"Grassroot Institute of Hawaii Introduces State Budget Tool For You To Try Out<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have fun by trying to balance the 2021 Hawaii State Budget through a new web interface developed by Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.<\/p>\n

I tried playing with it today by adjusting all kinds of parameters including tax collections, departmental budget cuts and more. It seems the app requires some tax increases which I refuse to do. I ended up cutting most of the departmental budgets by 20% each and the subsidies by 100%. It is too bad there is no room to cut out entire departments by 100%. Oh well, they are trying to make this as real world as possible. However it would be interesting to run other scenarios through the interface.<\/p>\n

You can read the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii’s press release below. Also don’t forget to try this thing out here. It’s easier said than done, but a fun exercise nevertheless.<\/p>\n

GRASSROOT INSTITUTE OF HAWAII BUDGET TOOL<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii tool shows 15% cuts across the board and delaying salary increases would be enough to erase the deficit<\/em><\/p>\n

PRESS RELEASE<\/strong><\/h3>\n

HONOLULU, June. 18, 2020<\/strong> >> Hawaii citizens now can try their hand at balancing the state budget with a new tool released today by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, available at grassrootinstitute.org\/budget.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWith the click of a button, Hawaii residents can balance the state budget and understand where their tax money goes,\u201d said Keli’i Akina,<\/strong> president and CEO of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.<\/p>\n

The tool shows that Hawaii\u2019s projected $1.4 billion general fund deficit in fiscal 2021 could be balanced by using $700 million from the rainy day fund, making 15% cuts across the board and delaying salary increases. That would still save $431 million in the rainy day fund and bring general fund spending to $7.7 billion, which is just below fiscal 2018 levels of $7.8 billion.[1]<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tool makes it easy to see that modest cuts can balance the budget without any need to increase taxes or debt,\u201d Akina said. \u201cIf our lawmakers had not increased spending so much since 2018, there would be no need to cut at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Akina urged lawmakers to refrain from using the entire $1.1 billion rainy day fund to balance this year\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the money could be used now,\u201d he said, \u201cbut the rest should be pocketed for later, in case it is needed for the uncertain times ahead.”<\/p>\n

The institute\u2019s new budget tool accounts for the recent actions by the Legislature to balance the budget, such as its $740 million in cuts to Gov. David Ige\u2019s budget and replenishing the state\u2019s rainy day fund with $735 million from special funds and other sources.[2]<\/p>\n

But finding other ways to reduce the debt will not be as easy, since the largest area of general fund spending \u2014 more than 50% \u2014 goes toward \u201cfixed costs,\u201d such as the state retirement fund, the state health benefits fund, debt and Medicaid.[3]<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than half of every dollar spent by the state goes toward benefits and debt,\u201d Akina said. \u201cIf our lawmakers can\u2019t find ways to reduce those costs, then all other options will need to be put on the table as the state enters a period of enormous financial uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Akina said that with the institute\u2019s new tool, \u201cHawaii\u2019s taxpayers can show lawmakers how to balance the budget. It\u2019s time to work together to navigate Hawaii\u2019s financially uncertain future.\u201d
\n________________<\/p>\n

[1] The fiscal 2018 budget was $7.8039 billion according to \u201cState of the State Budget 2020,\u201d Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, March 2019, p. 29.<\/p>\n

[2] \u201cGrassroot Institute FY 2021 budget analysis,\u201d Grassroot Institute of Hawaii June 18, 2020.<\/p>\n

[3] Ibid. Fiscal 2021 fixed costs amount to $4,254,697,897, or 63% of the state\u2019s projected revenues of $6,700,712,000.<\/p>\n

________________<\/p>\n

The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and educational institution that seeks, in the spirit of \u201cE hana kakou!\u201d (Let\u2019s work together!), to educate people about the value of individual liberty, economic freedom and accountable government. To arrange an interview with Keli’i Akina, please contact Mark Coleman at 386-9047 or mark.coleman@grassrootinstitute.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have fun by trying to balance the 2021 Hawaii State Budget through a new web interface developed by Grassroot Institute<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,451,9,41,24,49],"tags":[799,802,798,800,797,13,26,801],"class_list":["post-2978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-government","category-hawaii","category-internet","category-press-release","category-technology","tag-799","tag-balanced-budget","tag-computer-simulation-state-budget","tag-game","tag-grassroot-institute-of-hawaii","tag-hawaii","tag-press-release","tag-simulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2978"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2982,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2978\/revisions\/2982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hawaiifiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}