Wahine volleyball begins tonight!

With the University of Hawaii football season opener now behind us, let’s refocus on what many local sports fans really relish: Wahine volleyball. The 11th-ranked Wahine team opens its season at 7:30 tonight, facing NCAA champion Texas in the weekend’s Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational at Stan Sheriff Center.

Will this team make it to the Final Four, something the Wahine haven’t done since 2009? What’ll be the vibe when the Wahine play against former teammate Jane Croson, now with the Univer- sity of Arizona? Will this season — his 39th — be the last for Coach Dave Shoji, who stands to become his sport’s winningest next week?

All this, and much more. Go, ‘Bows!

Transparency also an issue for taxes

A new study confirms a disturbing fact that many of us here have known about for a long time: that Hawaii’s general excise tax pyramids and lacks transparency.

Unlike a true sales tax that is imposed on the consumer at the retail level, the GET applies to transactions at every step of the way, from wholesale to retail, meaning many goods are taxed multiple times, making them more expensive. So it’s not just a 4.5 percent tax that Oahu residents pay for a product (or 4 percent elsewhere in the state). After pyramiding, it’s much more than that.

The upside of the tax, said an economist with the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation, which did the study, is that it covers both goods and services, resulting in a more balanced tax base, especially as services have become more prominent in Hawaii.

But still …