It’s been a full year since COVID-19 changed the face of our planet. Vaccines are being administered, infection rates are lowering, and Oahu has been upgraded to Tier 3. It looks like there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
But we’re not out of the woods yet. Tax season is upon us. Without relief, state income taxes on unemployment insurance and/or Pandemic Unemployment Assistance may bury local working families.
In an effort to combat a public health crisis, we’ve been physically distant from one another for over a year. In order to survive, more than 580,000 Hawaii workers filed for unemployment benefits in 2020.
In the “before times,” claimants might have withheld money on the front end to offset the taxes potentially owed on the back end. For some local working families during the pandemic, withholding 10% of their already reduced income was an impossibility.
There are 15 states that do not tax unemployment insurance. As of February, the governors of Maryland and Delaware have signed bills exempting unemployment from state income tax, with Arkansas right around the corner
President Joe Biden has signed the American Rescue Plan Act into law, which, among other types of relief, waives federal income tax on the first $10,200 of unemployment insurance. And contrary to some inaccurate claims, states can still cut taxes for working families without running afoul of ARPA requirements.
Senate Bill 614 SD 2, which would exempt state income tax on UI/PUA during the pandemic, passed its third reading unanimously on the Senate floor and was transmitted to the state House of Representatives.
The Senate committees on Labor, Culture, and the Arts and Ways and Means, and the Senate leadership had the courage and foresight to move this important relief for workers forward — and they should be thanked for their efforts to help struggling working families.
But when the time came for House leadership and the House Committee on Labor and Tourism to consider working families, they didn’t even have the decency to schedule the bill to be heard. They quietly smothered the hopes of local working families outside of the chambers.
Senate Courage
There were at least three opportunities for House leadership to hear bills that would have directly benefited local working families — UI/PUA tax relief as a House bill, general excise tax exemption on groceries, and SB 614 from the Senate. House leadership passed on worker relief at every turn. A bill requiring studio teachers and nurses for child actors that would have cost the state absolutely nothing was also killed — a bill that was all but law just before COVID-19.
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 will send a much needed influx of $1.6 billion to state coffers. House Finance Committee Chair Sylvia Luke announced the state now has enough money to repay a $700 million plus $40 million in interest unemployment insurance loan on behalf of Hawaii’s employers. That loan, while necessary, is the responsibility of employers.
While there is cause to support local businesses, there is an even greater need to support the patronage of the communities on which these businesses rely.
Rather than give a measured approach with equitable relief provided to both local businesses and working families, House leadership is proposing to forgive the federal loan to Hawaii employers in its entirety. And while they shot down raising the minimum wage, House leadership appears to have no problem giving themselves a raise.
Based on results, there’s money to save your boss. There’s even money for them. There’s just no money in the budget to save you.
Opponents of UI/PUA income tax relief have said that it would negatively impact the state economy. In comments offered by the Department of Taxation, the estimated impact to the state budget is approximately $191 million. And from a purely line-item analysis, that’s a hard pill to swallow.
House leadership passed on worker relief at every turn.
But in the bigger picture, that’s $191 million that Hawaii residents and consumers can put right back into the economy for food, utility bills, car payments, rent and mortgage payments, clothes, and other necessities. The purchasing power that economic stimulus and relief provides to lower- and middle-class families has measurable velocity.
But when economic stimulus and relief are given to the wealthiest entities, that money doesn’t move at all. If anything, it actively reinforces income inequality. The exempting of UI/PUA from state income taxes could be life-saving economic relief for the working families of Hawaii.
The state of Hawaii could be in store for a tidal wave of homelessness and food insecurity on a scale that has never been seen before. The state budget needs to be balanced, but not on the backs of the working families of Hawaii.
An economy that does not support the communities that built it is worthless at best and cannibalistic at worst. We can, should, and must support the working families of Hawaii. If you received UI/PUA from March 1, 2020, to Dec. 31, 2020, call your state representative today and tell them what income tax relief on UI/PUA would mean to your family.
