| STATE OF HAWAII
HAWAII, THE ALOHA STATE
Honolulu, the capital city, is on the Island of O‘ahu. HAWAI‘I'S EIGHT MAJOR ISLANDS
State Flower: Yellow hibiscus (pua ma‘o hau hele; Hibiscus brackenridgei) that will be loved by visitors State Bird: Hawaiian goose (nene; Branta sandvicensis) State Tree: Candlenut (kukui; Aleurites moluccana) State Song: Hawai‘i Pono‘i State Seal and Motto: Ua mau ke ea o ka ‘aina i ka pono (The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness) HAWAI‘I'S PEOPLE
Number of households (2000): 403,240 with an average of 2.92 persons per household The population is 50% male and 50% female. Median age (2000): 36.2 years Age breakdown (2000): Under 5 (6.5%); 5-19 (20.6); 20-44 (36.8); 45-64 (22.9); 65+ (13.3) Ethnicity (2000): Hawaiian/Part Hawaiian (22.1%); Caucasian (20.5); Japanese (18.3); Filipino (12.3); Chinese (4.1)
Divorces and annulments (1999): 4,620 Life expectancy (1990): Males, 75.9 years; Females, 82.0 years Education (2000): 87.4% of the population 25 years and older are high school graduates; 26% has a bachelor's or advanced degree. HAWAI‘I'S GOVERNMENT Legislature: 51-member House and 25-member Senate which meets annually There are four counties with mayors and councils: City & County of Honolulu (the Island of O‘ahu and the Northwest Hawaiian Islands excluding Midway)
Maui County (Islands of Maui, Moloka‘i, Lana‘i and Kaho‘olawe) Kaua‘i County (Islands of Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau) The two levels of government in Hawai'i are state and county. Counties perform most services usually assigned to cities and towns (fire protection, police, refuse collection, construction and maintenance of streets and other public works). There is only one school district which is administered by the State. Congressional members: U.S. Representatives: Patsy T. Mink and Neil Abercrombie HAWAI‘I'S ECONOMY Major export industries: The State of Hawai‘i is committed to diversifying the economy. Industries encouraged are science and technology, film and television production, sports, ocean research and development, health and education tourism, diversified agriculture and floral and specialty food products. TOURISM Major supplier: www.FunHawaii.com representing Pleasant, Apple, Classic, United By country (2000): Mainland U.S., 4.1 million; Japan,1.8 million Visitor expenditures (2000): $10.9 billion Average daily visitor expenditure (2000): U.S. West, $146; U.S. East, $164; Japan, $222
The Hawai‘i Convention Center opened in 1998. It has hosted meetings as large as 30,000 and has a calendar of meetings scheduled to 2010. The Hawai‘i Tourism Authority oversees the planning and marketing of tourism in Hawai‘i. FEDERAL EXPENDITURES Military personnel and dependents (2000): 78,346 Based in Hawai‘i, USPACOM, the U.S. Pacific Command, is geographically the largest of the U.S. unified service commands. It covers about 50% of the earth's surface from the U.S. West Coast to Africa's east coast and from the Arctic to the Antarctic. AGRICULTURE Value of crop and livestock sales (1999): $509.6 million Major crops (1999): Sugar, $86.8 million; pineapple, $101.4 million; flower and nursery products, $75.4 million; macadamia nuts, $37.9 million; coffee, $21.0 million; milk, $31.2 million; cattle, $16.6 million; eggs, $10.8 million Aquaculture farms statewide (1999): 100 small or medium-sized operations, often diversified. Overall value of aquaculture (1999): $18.1 million; value of shellfish production, $6.4 million; algae, $7.9 million EXPORTS AND IMPORTS RETAIL TRADE Hawai‘i's retail establishments include discount outlet malls, big box outlets and national and international luxury and chain stores. LABOR FORCE Civilian labor force (2000): 595,450 Composition of labor force (2000): Male, 53%; Female, 47% Civilian employment (2000): 569,900 Annual wages per private employee (1999): $28,135 In 1999, 9.8% of employed persons held multiple jobs. Hawai‘i's economy is service-oriented with hotels and other service providers accounting for more than one-fourth of the jobs. About three in ten civilian workers are professional or managerial. Government and retailing account for half the number of employees. Hawai‘i's workforce is skilled in Asian languages and business protocol. LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS Principal unions: AFL-CIO, Teamsters, International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) Largest memberships: Hawai‘i Government Employees Association, ILWU, and Teamsters. Labor union membership (1999): 114,500 In 1999, 23.2% of those employed were union members. FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND INVESTMENTS Savings and loan associations (1999): 3 with 97 branches Publicly traded Hawai‘i companies: 23 All major U.S. securities firms are represented. BUSINESS FIRMS Business starts (1999): 535 Business bankruptcy filings (2000): 63 Job count by industry (2000): Service (33%); Government (21%); Retail (21%); Manufacturing (3%) Most of Hawai‘i's businesses are small. 58% have fewer than five employees and 95% have fewer than 50 employees. The Hawai‘i Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Act was passed in 1998 to ease the process of creating and operating a business. COMMUNICATIONS There are also foreign language newspapers, radio stations and television stations. Cable TV companies (1999): 2 with 358,723 subscribers Cellular telephone companies (2000): 10 In 2000, 52.4% of Hawai‘i's households had computers and 43.0% had Internet access. Hawai‘i has high data rate links with more than 30 state-of-the-art telecommunications satellites. 29,000 miles of undersea fiber optic cables provide 140,000 voice equivalent circuits facilitating simultaneous voice, data and image transmissions to the continental United States, Canada and Asia along with a new "supercarrier" cable providing an additional 130,000 circuits. Thirty dedicated T-1s link to every major business center in Asia and Europe. In 1998, 100% of local telephone lines were converted from analog to digital switching. In 2001, a new transpacific cable linking Australia to the U.S. mainland via Hawai‘i has provided increased bandwidth to the islands. Beginning with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the State of Hawai‘i launched a program of deregulation to encourage increased competition among companies. EDUCATION Institutions with an international focus are the East-West Center, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, the Japan-America Institute of Management Science, Hawai‘i Pacific University, Chaminade University, Kansai Gaidai Hawai‘i College and the University of Hawai‘i. Hawai‘i's statewide public school system had an enrollment in 2000 of 183,520 students in grades K-12. There are also 132 private schools. Enrollment in private schools was 36,226 in 1999. TRANSPORTATION Licensed drivers (2000): 769,383 Motor vehicle registrations (2000): 941,242 Streets and highways (1998): 4,217 miles The availability of public transportation varies from island to island. Commercial airports (1999): 9; general aviation, military or semiprivate airports: 14; heliports: 5; active pilots (1996): 2,561; active civil aircraft in general aviation: 364 Harbors: 7 deep-draft and 2 medium-draft harbors on the five major islands in the State There is barge service between islands. INCOME AND COST OF LIVING Median annual income for families (1999): $66,402. Hawai‘i was ranked seventh among the fifty states and District of Columbia. The cost of living for a family of four has been estimated to be 27% higher than the U.S. average for a comparable standard of living. GOVERNMENT FINANCE AND TAXATION The four counties establish real property tax rates and assess and collect these taxes. Except for licenses, permits and fees, other tax collections are the responsibility of the State which operates a centralized tax system. Hawai‘i has no personal property or inventory taxes. There is a general excise tax (GET) of 4% that is applied to retail sale of goods and services. The corporate tax rate is 4.4 percent of income up to $25,000, 5.4 percent of taxable income up to $100,000 and 6.4 percent of income exceeding $100,000. The capital gains tax rate is 4 percent for corporations. HOUSING State median resale value (2000): Single family, $265,000; condominium, $139,000 Average monthly mortgage (2000): $1,863 Average monthly rent (2000): $813 Housing is expensive in Hawai‘i, due to limited availability and the high price of land. Mobile homes are not found in Hawai‘i as zoning and building code regulations are stringent. PUBLIC UTILITIES Electric utilities: Hawai‘i Electric Light Company (Hawai‘i); Hawaiian Electric Co. (O‘ahu); Kaua‘i Electric (Kaua‘i); Maui Electric Co. (Maui, Moloka‘i and Lana‘i) Gas sales (2000): 34.8 million therms of utility gas Gas utility: The Gas Company ENERGY RESOURCES Other sources of energy: Solar, geothermal, garbage power, bagasse (waste from sugarcane) and wood chips from trees, wind power, water-driven turbines and coal. Given its nearly total dependence on oil imports, Hawai‘i's top energy priorities are alternate energy and conservation. RESEARCH, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Hawai‘i supports science and technology research and development through a multitude of agencies. Key among these agencies are the High Technology Development Corporation, the Maui Research & Technology Center (home of the Maui High Performance Computing Center), the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai‘i Authority (an ocean science and technology park utilizing deep ocean water technology), Center of Excellence in Ocean Sciences (CEROS), Pacific Center for High Technology Research, Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute and the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism. The University of Hawai‘i fosters research in all aspects of science and technology with international recognition in areas such as astronomy, ocean sciences, geology and biomedical research. Notably, astronomy plays a key role in Hawai‘i's commitment to scientific research. The exceptionally clear skies at the summits of Hawai‘i Island's Mauna Kea and Maui's Haleakala offer optimum conditions for astronomical observations. On Mauna Kea alone, 13 major facilities representing the cooperation of ten countries are in operation. The Subaru Telescope Facility, the newest observatory, represents a new class of revolutionary telescopes. Supported by a dedicated supercomputer in Hilo, its ultra-thin and light mirror permits extremely high accuracy in imaging celestial objects. In the area of biotechnology, a team lead by Professor Ryuzo Yanagimachi of the University of Hawai‘i's School of Medicine developed the "Honolulu Cloning Technique" producing fifty identical mice. In 2000, the Hawai‘i Institute of Biogenesis, a $4.9 million facility, opened to support this research. HAWAI‘I'S BUSINESS INCENTIVES No personal property tax No tax on inventory, furniture, equipment or machinery Credit granted against taxes paid on the purchase of capital goods, machinery, and equipment No state tax on goods manufactured for export No stock transfer tax (all security exchange transactions are exempt from general excise tax, as an incentive to financial institutions) No unincorporated business tax Banks and financial institutions pay only one business tax Manufactured products or those produced for export are exempt from the general excise tax, including custom computer software The corporate tax rate is 4.4 percent of income up to $25,000, 5.4 percent of taxable income up to $100,000 and 6.4 percent of income exceeding $100,000. The capital gains tax rate is 4 percent for corporations. The Immigrant Investor Program and the Enterprise Zone Program are available for qualified applicants. Hawai‘i's Department of Labor and Industrial Relations administers the Employment Training Fund which provides industry or employer-specific training programs in high growth occupational areas. The Technology Omnibus Act was signed into law in 2000 and provides tax incentives for high technology businesses. |
Hawai‘i became the 50th state on August 21, 1959.
