Hawaii Teachers Want Higher Taxes, Higher Salaries

Aloha! Now, stand and deliver!

HONOLULU — Hawaiians already pay among the nation's highest taxes, and the state's Department of Education already gets a good chunk of the revenue from those taxes — nearly 50 percent of the state general fund budget or $2 billion per year in total expenditures from all sources.

But some public school teachers say that's not enough.

They've organized a campaign to boost teacher salaries with funding from a substantial jump in the state's primary tax, the General Gross Income Tax.