Don’t expect your Hawaii income tax refund until July

Another impact of the state’s $1.3 billion budget shortfall is that Hawaii residents will have to wait until July 1 to receive individual and corporate tax refunds, according to the Hawaii Department of Taxation. Delaying the refunds will result in a one-time savings of $275 million, department officials said. The funds will be directed toward the shortfall.

The Tax Department, which legally has a 90-day refund period, will release refunds beginning July 1 on a “first-in-first-out basis” to ensure that early filers will receive their refunds first, department officials said in a prepared statement on the refund delay, which was originally announced in the supplemental budget that Gov. Linda Lingle submitted to the Legislature on Dec. 21.

Tax collections off 5.4 percent, state says

Meanwhile, state tax collections continued their slide for the first seven months of fiscal year 2010. The Tax Department said Feb. 10 the state took in $2.457 billion, down 5.4 percent from the first seven months of the last fiscal year.

General excise tax collections dropped 6.7 percent to $1.326 billion in the first seven months of fiscal 2010 compared with $1.421 billion in 2009, while corporate income tax receipts fell 67 percent to $8.268 million in the first seven months of fiscal 2010 from $25.077 million the year before and individual income tax collections went down 6.7 percent to $864.52 million in the first seven months of fiscal 2010 from $926.617 million the year before.

General fund balance drops to $2.45 billion

Hawaii’s general fund balance now totals $2.45 billion — a 5.4 percent drop from the first seven months of the previous fiscal year. General fund revenues totaled $403 million in January.

General excise and use taxes totaled $199 million last month. Fiscal year to date through January, the taxes decreased 6.7 percent to $1.3 billion. By contrast, transient accommodations tax collections grew $15.5 million for the month. Compared to the last fiscal year, TAT collections through January were up 3 percent to $124 million.

Individual income tax collections amounted to $166 million in January, a drop of 6.7 percent from the previous fiscal period, while corporate income tax collections were down $16.8 million year to date. The revenue numbers were released Feb. 11.

Shortfalls hit neighbor islands, too

On Maui, Mayor Charmaine Tavares said the economic downturn has hit county finances sooner than expected in the form of a $13.9 million deficit. The mayor said in a letter to the Maui County Council that revenues for the current year are coming in lower than budgeted for four key county funds. The general fund is being hit hardest, with a shortfall of $5.5 million. The water supply fund, highway fund and solid waste fund are also coming up short.

Tavares said in the letter last week that she already has taken steps to curtail expenditures. County Finance Director Kalbert Young said he expected to see revenues decline through at least 2013. The projected shortfall represents just over 2 percent of the county's $563.7 million budget this year.

In a related development, borrowing at Hawaii public libraries in 2009 reached a 10-year high, according to State Librarian Richard Burns, reporting to the Board of Education. More than 7.228 million books were checked out, Burns said. "This once again demonstrates that people are turning to libraries in difficult economic times," he said.

State Judiciary will charge more for copies

The Hawaii State Judiciary is raising its fees for copies of legal documents in Honolulu March 1. People currently can get copies of legal documents for 15 cents a page. That will be raised to $1 for the first page and 50 cents for each additional page, and the copying will be handled by a court clerk. There also will be fee hikes for copies of microfilmed documents and faxing documents to Neighbor Islands and the Mainland.

Members of the public wanting copies of legal documents, whether divorce records or lawsuits, will now have to pay more because they’re not available online. The state’s online legal documents portal, Hoohiki, offers only snippets of information on any given case, such as the case number, parties involved and motions filed. It doesn’t allow electronic access to the full documents, which can be viewed only in person at the public records room on the first floor of 1st Circuit Court on Punchbowl Street.