It is a good time to be rich in Hawaii.

During the past legislative session, taxes were cut by as much as 2.75 percentage points for families making over $400,000, while virtually nothing was done for the working poor.

When combined with the Legislature’s decision to end the cap on itemized deductions, the cost of these tax breaks has been estimated at nearly $43 million — money that could have helped to fund pre-kindergarten education for thousands of children.

This generous gift to the wealthy would have been easier to swallow if the poor — who already shoulder a comparatively heavy tax burden — got some relief, too.

Yet nearly all the proposals to put a few hundred extra dollars in the pockets of working families were defeated this year. Even a bill to increase the paltry tax credit for renters — a benefit that hasn’t changed in over 30 years — couldn’t secure sufficient support.

As with so many legislative sessions in the past, some of these bills were deferred until next year, presumably because there wasn’t sufficient time to consider their complexities. But most were simply deemed to be too expensive.

Look: Nobody wants the state to spend money it doesn’t have. But one might be forgiven for wondering why the budget scolds, armed with their green eyeshades and spreadsheets, only come around when prospective legislation might benefit the poor.

Sadly, our Legislature’s indifference to Hawaii’s most needy residents is not unique.

One recent study from political scientists at Princeton and Northwestern universities found that average citizens have almost no influence on public policy at the federal level. Indeed, after analyzing 1,799 policy issues, these scholars were forced to conclude that when the interests of normal citizens and the rich conflict, the wealthy get their way.

The situation here in Hawaii isn’t much different.

How could this happen in a state overwhelmingly controlled by Democrats — and one with such a long and distinguished tradition of innovative and progressive legislation?

The easiest answer, of course, is that legislators simply don’t care about the poor. But anyone who has spent much time around local officials knows that this is not true. As individuals, most policymakers genuinely delight in talking to their constituents and working on their problems. So what’s going on here?

The best research in political science suggests that there are two possible explanations for why the wealthy always win.

First, the rich simply have more access. Money may not buy votes — but it does buy time and attention. The people who attend the $150-a-plate fundraisers are unlikely to find their legislative priorities ignored.

Second, most legislators have difficulty identifying with the problems that working families face on a daily basis. As one recent study from Duke University found, the professionals who occupy most of the seats in Congress are less likely to support policies that benefit the poor than legislators from working-class backgrounds.

The same is true here in Hawaii. Today, most of our legislators have highly-paid jobs in law and business when they’re not in session.

It is not that our well-heeled representatives don’t care about the poor. But legislation that would provide folks a break on their grocery bill seems less urgent to the politicians on Punchbowl Street who rarely experience such financial challenges in their daily lives.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Hawaii is still a relatively equal place compared to most states on the mainland, in part because of the efforts of courageous politicians in the past. Next year, let’s put more pressure on our elected representatives to keep it that way.

———

Colin Moore is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.