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While the letter, “Unlike hotels, vacation rental money stays here” (Star-Advertiser, June 14), argues that vacation rentals generate more money that stays in Hawaii, you should examine who truly gets that money.
Hotels help pay salaries for housekeepers, servers and others who make ends meet by working in the tourism industry. Vacation rental money goes to help personally finance people’s secondary properties that have been taken off the market for those hotel employees’ families to rent.
The implications are more far-reaching than just whether rentals should be taxed or not. Rentals are also a subtle way of widening the gap between the have and have-nots in Hawaii.
Steve Dang
Kaimuki
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