Gov. Josh Green, please veto House Bill 2404. Increasing the standard tax deduction is good, but the revenue loss should be made up by higher rates at higher brackets.

Our taxes on the rich are already very low. Our general excise tax on food and medicine is absurdly regressive. Our failure to tax pensions exacerbates intergenerational inequality.

Meanwhile our public schools, to which the not-so-wealthy must send their children, cannot afford to pay teachers fairly, our doctors and nurses are steadily leaving, and county governments cannot pay employees well enough to fill positions.

Since around 1980, the Democratic Party, both locally and federally, has been the party that makes things worse more slowly. It doesn’t have to be that way. Imagine a Hawaii as famous for pono government as it is for surfing, hula and canoe racing.

Neil Frazer

Kailua

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