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Hawai'i Skies

Today's Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Patrick Murphy in Maui. "Well, for one thing, I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. I still live there and absolutely love it, but we never experience a sunset even remotely close to the ones I've witnessed in Maui. For us, Maui is truly paradise!

But, the most important reason this photo means so much to me is the people near me as I took the picture. My wife and I have been coming to a small resort called Kihei Kai since the 1980's. Over the years we've met eight or 10 couples who return every year at the same time we do. They come from Boulder, CO; Manhattan, KS; Kenai, AK; Minneapolis, MN; Vancouver, BC; and so on. All of us staying there gather every night to watch the Maui sunset. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The view is spectacular, but the company ... priceless!\""}]

To submit your Hawai'i Skies photo, visit us 

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

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<title>Hawaiʻi Skies: A priceless sunset</title>

Today's Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Patrick Murphy in Maui.

Hawaiʻi Skies: A priceless sunset

Today&#039;s Hawai‘i Skies was captured by Patrick Murphy in Maui. &quot;Well, for one thing, I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. I still live there and absolutely love it, but we never experience a sunset even remotely close to the ones I&#039;ve witnessed in Maui. For us, Maui is truly paradise! But, the most important reason this photo means so much to me is the people near me as I took the picture. My wife and I have been coming to a small resort called Kihei Kai since the 1980&#039;s. Over the years we&#039;ve met eight or 10 couples who return every year at the same time we do. They come from Boulder, CO; Manhattan, KS; Kenai, AK; Minneapolis, MN; Vancouver, BC; and so on. All of us staying there gather every night to watch the Maui sunset.  The view is spectacular, but the company ... priceless!&quot; To submit your Hawai&#039;i Skies photo, visit us online or email: general@alohastatedaily.com For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter.

Higa headshot white shirt square

Sterling Higa

Government & Politics

Columnists

In the spring of 2024, Hawai‘i did something unusual: It cut income taxes.

Its backers called it the largest income tax cut in state history. A family of four earning the median household income of $91,000 would see their tax bill drop by 

Rep. Kyle Yamashita, then House Finance chair, 

 “a foundational piece in restructuring our tax code.” For once, the language wasn’t empty — because Yamashita had a plan.

Hawai‘i has some of the lowest property taxes in the nation — low enough, he argued, to draw out-of-state buyers in. About 30% of homes statewide are owned by outside buyers, 

, driving up prices and pushing local families out. The problem? The state doesn’t control property taxes. Counties do. And counties, facing their own pressures, weren’t going to raise them on their own.

, Yamashita suggested cutting off the GET surcharge revenue the state shares with the counties: “We stop giving the counties money, and then they have to make that shift.” The cut wasn’t only relief for working families. It was the opening move in a longer game — starve state revenue, force spending cuts, and squeeze the counties into doing what the Legislature couldn’t: raise property taxes.

The plan rested on a quiet bet that Yamashita would still be Finance chair when it came time for Step Two.

When Nadine Nakamura took the speakership, the factions that had kept Yamashita in place shifted around him. Rep. Chris Todd 

 as Finance chair. The memo offered no reason, only that “the House has decided to move in a new direction.” Todd said “basic math” meant lawmakers would have to recoup the lost tax revenue.

 the last five years of the cuts, keeping roughly $1.8 billion in state revenue. The House 

 39 to 11. The Senate has held firm. Ways and Means Chair Donovan Dela Cruz called the 2024 cuts “landmark legislation” while noting 

 — and a clash between the two chambers is coming.

Hawai‘i has been here before — the state passed an income tax cut in 1998. Then came the Great Recession. In 2009, 

. The pattern holds: the first thing cut when revenues fall is whatever tax relief was promised last.

Yamashita’s read on the tax structure was correct as far as it went. Hawai‘i taxes income hard and property lightly — a levy on people who work here and a break for people who park wealth here.

But the reason the state taxes heavily and the counties lightly is because PreK-12 education is handled at the state level. Hawai‘i is the only state with a statewide school district. We’re budgeting around $2.6 billion for that district this year. All other states handle education at the county level. The most direct path to reform runs through education.

Yamashita saw the bind: the state had to shed power to the counties — starting with education — or find new ways to tax. But his solution was naive. A state income tax cut was never going to shrink state government. It was going to produce exactly what happened: A push to reverse the cuts and hand the state 

 to the state — two provisions that sit on opposite sides of the same problem. Changing those provisions takes a constitutional amendment or a constitutional convention. That is a long, hard fight. It needs staying power that Hawai‘i’s shifting politics cannot provide.

Yamashita’s removal proved something. Reform depends less on good ideas than on staying power. The people pushing reform have to outlast it, or the next person through the door reverses it.

In any policy fight, the temptation is to find the right champion and trust the outcome to him. Hawai‘i is more prone to this than most. It’s a small state where a few chairs hold great power, and one upset can shuffle the whole deck. We look to princes because the system makes princes look powerful. But the psalmist had seen enough throne rooms to know how that ends: 

Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.

Lawmakers who voted for those cuts owe their voters something: cut spending first. The harder talk still needs to happen — a constitutional amendment, or a constitutional convention. That’s the only path to reform that doesn’t depend on one chairman keeping his seat.

Yamashita

<title>The missing step</title>

When the Hawai‘i state Legislature passed historic tax cuts in 2024, it was meant to be the first step in a two-step plan to restructure Hawai‘i's tax code by state Rep. Kyle Yamashita, then chair of the House Finance committee. Then he lost the chairmanship, the House voted to take back the cuts and Yamashita's plan has gone missing. ASD columnist Sterling Higa explores what might have been.

The missing step

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

Himalayan Kitchen’s Ala Moana Center location has been replaced by a different Indian eatery.

 opened in February in Himalayan Kitchen’s former space at Ala Moana Center (it’s located on the street level, close to Macy’s and Assaggio Hawai

i). While Himalayan Kitchen offered Nepali-Indian cuisine, this new eatery features Pakistani-North Indian cuisine.

We’re told the latter features more grilled meats, while Nepali-Indian food is more curry-based.

The eatery’s layout remains the same; there are a few tables for dine-in service but the business is conducive to takeout.

If some of the menu items sound familiar, it’s because the chef used to work at now-closed Bombay Palace (in Discovery Bay Center). Compared to Bombay Palace, Tandoori Express features a more streamlined menu, focused on the eatery’s most popular dishes since the current space is more conducive to takeout (instead of a more formal dining experience).

Start with appetizers like veg samosas ($5.99 for two), which boast a crispy exterior and soft interior. They’re served with a refreshing mint chutney.

The lunch plates ($12.99-$15.99) are a new option (compared to the former Bombay Palace menu) and feature your choice of two or three curries with a side of rice or naan. This gives customers a chance to try several curries instead of ordering a single curry entree.

Curries range from chicken tikka masala and butter chicken to lamb rogan josh (tender lamb in an aromatic, creamy tomato curry) and paneer Makhani (paneer cubes in a creamy, tomato-based sauce). Although it’s not listed on the menu, palak paneer (cubes of Indian cottage cheese in a creamy spinach curry) is also available. Customers just need to ask for it.

[{"type":"text","text":"Curry entrées ($12.99-$14.99) come with a side of rice."}]

The eatery also features reasonably priced bentos ($10.99 each). Choose from tandoori chicken or tandoori lamb on rice with a side of raita (yogurt sauce). So far, the lamb kebabs have been a customer favorite.

The menu also features a selection of grilled meats — tandoori chicken ($15.99), tandoori shrimp ($15.99) and tandoori lamb kebab ($16.99) — along with naan breads, dinner specials (chicken biryani and chili chicken), and beverages like the popular mango lassi ($5.99).

Open for lunch 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., dinner 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays to Mondays (closed on Tuesdays)

Tandoori Express lunch spread 031726

<title>Tandoori Express is now open in Ala Moana Center</title>

The eatery is located in the former space of Himalayan Kitchen. It specializes in Pakistani-North Indian cuisine, and serves up dishes that were popular at the now-closed Bombay Palace.

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Authors

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