The Legislature Should Not Strip The Counties Of Their Share Of The Transient Accommodations Tax

The State of Hawaii’s tax collections continues to significantly decline.It is good to see that some legislators are not looking at raising taxes to make up for the budget shortfall (it will be political suicide for any politicians advocating raising taxes in a election year). On top of that, the taxes the legislature raised last session have not brought in any new tax revenue.Thus the legislature will have its work cut for itself to solve this budgetary crisis during the upcoming session.

(Related item : Should The Legislature Increase The General Excise Tax To Balance The Budget ?

The first thing the legislature will attempt to do is strip the counties of their share of the transient accommodations tax.

“In the Senate, Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, Ways and Means Committee chairwoman, said yesterday she would introduce a bill next year taking $40 million from the counties’ portion of the hotel room tax.”

If the legislature strips this funding from the counties it will be like dropping an atomic bomb on their respective budgets. The counties will have to resort to raising property taxes, furloughing workers, and cutting services to make up for the funding shortfall.

Hawaiian Telcom’s bankruptcy proceedings to address their bankruptcy reorganization plan started yesterday. It should be interesting to see how this plays out.Their preferred reorganization plan is facing stiff resistance from unsecured creditors.

Hawaiian Telcom will be facing significant hurdles even if they successfully exit bankruptcy and receive the necessary approvals from the Hawaii PUC.

Lastly, I got in touch with videographer John Sefick. He has posted YouTube videos where he interviews people opposed to the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope for Mauna Kea. He is going to try to interview me regarding the TMT project sometime in December.

The Republicans Rather Attack The Democrats Health Care Over Haul Than Present Their Solution To This Crisis

I’m frustrated by the Republican’s attempts to attack the Democrats health care reform efforts.The United States is facing a health care crisis. There is approximately 47 million Americans under the age of 65 who don’t have medical insurance. These individuals face severe financial consequences (including bankruptcy) if they get seriously ill.

These consequences get magnified since these individuals also don’t have access to preventative care. For example, my girlfriend did not have dental coverage for about approximately 3 years.She recently had to have four of her teeth filled due to the latter. Thus health care costs could be reduced if more people were insured and had access to preventative care.

The judge handling the furlough Fridays lawsuits denied the plaintiffs request for preliminary injunction to block these school furlough days.This is absolutely the right decision in this case. The HSTA, legislature,DOE/BOE, and the governor are the real parties that should solve this issue, not the judiciary.

(Governor Lingle apparently could release 35 million in federal stimulus funding to help restore these lost school days. I certainly hope she does release this money)

Lastly, I would support the DLNR’s attempts to start charging for access to state parks (hat tip to Damon Tucker) as long as the funding went towards the upkeep of the facilities. The state parks facilities I’ve seen are in deplorable condition.

West Hawaii Needs More And Better Parks

Plans For West Hawaii Parks

West Hawaii needs more and better parks.

The plans for creating new parks and improving existing parks in West Hawaii will be the subject of the Kona Town Meeting, held on Tuesday, November 17th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Makaeo Events Pavilion at the Old Airport Park.

Guest speakers will be Bob Fitzgerald, Director of County Parks and Recreation, who will speak about the Old Kona Airport Park(Makaeo) redesign, a timeline for building the parks and how we will get the funding to build the park facilities. Craig “Bo” Kahui, Executive Director of La’i'opua 2020, will give an update on obtaining the land for the West Hawaii Regional Sports Park in Kealakehe.

Andy Smith, West Hawaii Liaison for Governor Linda Lingle will speak about the Department of Land and Natural Resources Parks Renaissance Program. Fred Cachola, who served on the Federal Advisory Commission that created Kaloko- Honokohau and Kalaupapa National Parks. Mr. Cachola will speak on the Blue (ocean) Trail and the Brown(land) Trail, which is the 175-mile long, Ala Kahakai trail. David Hirt, Legislative Aide for Kelly Greenwell, will speak on Councilmember Greenwell’s plan for West Hawaii’s parks.

Kona Town Meetings are presented by Community Enterprises, a non-partisan, non-profit organization, to provide vital information on community concerns to Kona citizens. Light refreshments will be served. Please call Debbie Hecht 989-3222 for more information.

Hawaii’s Broadband Infrastructure Needs To Be Improved If We Want To Remain Economically Competitive In The 21st Century

I’m happy to see that the charter commission voted to place the codification of the 2% land fund into the Hawaii County charter on to the 2010 ballot .This would prevent future raids on this fund by the administration if the citizens of this island vote for it. However the commission voted for an amendment that prevents the Mayor or the council from reducing the percentage of funding for the land fund below .5%.

The charter commission also failed to pass the four year county council term charter amendment .

I would highly recommend reading The Wave Hawaii. It has had a lot of fascinating articles such as “Leaving Home is an Economic Indicator” and especially this article titled “The Blue Wave Revisited.”

The latter article is a painful reminder that Hawaii is simply spinning its wheels and lacking serious leadership to guide our local economy out of these boom and bust cycles.

“Despite the efforts of DBEDT and island economic development boards, there is not much steering of the economy going on at the leadership level. As a result, the State continues to spin in the lazy circles of the boom and bust cycle.”

Hawaii’s woeful broadband infrastructure is a great place for Hawaii’s politicians to start improving to help our 21st century tech competitiveness with the rest of the world. There has been a number of surveys done placing Hawaii’s Internet speeds nearly dead last.Thus there is no question my mind that something needs to be done to improve this. For example, 1Gbps speeds are available in Japan.

Lastly, it looks like the incomplete timeshare project above the Royal Kona Resort on Alii Drive has been put up for sale when I drove by last night.

Tomi Tomi Drive Waterline Project Update

I received this time line and status update regarding the waterline project being constructed on Tomi Tomi Drive from an individual who lives in the area.

1. We were told in July, 2006, that this project was to start in early 2007. It didn’t, for a number of reasons, one of which was that easements from Jernigan and Queen Lili O Kalani Trust(QLT) had not be obtained.

2. DWS was able to get the QLT easement earlier this year, but they were forced to use eminent domain to acquire the Jernigan easement because he was demanding over $250,000 where the appraised value was $65,000.

3. As WHT reported, DWS was granted the right to proceed on the Jernigan land, but then Jernigan filed another suit challenging the Hawaii eminent domain law. This postponed the DWS from entering Jernigan’s land. Milton Pavao told us this has been referred to the Hawaii Attorney General for his opinion. The AG opinion is expected by end of Nov and it is likely the Judge will rule against Jernigan.

4. DWS had already awarded the contract to CTS Earthmoving with a time limit to complete the project. CTS decided to start on the Kuni Road which is County owned needing no easement.

5. DWS and CTS have not communicated very well to local residents what the plan and schedule is for this project. That is why we scheduled a meeting with CTS last Tuesday and we subsequently requested a meeting with DWS yesterday.

6. As a result of many residents’ expressed concerns, DWS and CTS agreed to write their plan and schedule for this project and send it to me for distribution early next week.

7. After residents have had time to review the plan and schedule, we will have a follow-up meeting with DWS and CTS next Friday, 11/13.

8. All of the residents agree that our goal is to get DWS and CTS out of our neighborhood as quickly as possible. No one is threatening a lawsuit as that would delay our goal.

9, We are pushing DWS and CTS to respect our rights and do the right thing. After a rough start, they are beginning to get it. They were very surprised yesterday with the strong resident turnout and opposition to them just trying to run over us. My sense is that they are going to make a much greater effort from now on to communicate with all the local residents and keep everyone informed what the plans are.

Retired Teachers Who Have HSTA’s Medical Insurance Will See Significant Benefit Reductions In The New Fiscal Year

My mom received a notice today regarding significant benefit reductions impacting the retired HSTA medical insurance plan (provided by HMSA).These reductions will be especially hurt individuals who use a out of network provider for any surgical services,x-ray,inpatient lab services,radiation therapy or have to stay at the hospital.

The biggest concern is the fact that these benefit reductions will not make up the total funding shortfall. The VEBA Trust is making up the difference. The latter is simply unsustainable in the long term. Thus I would fully expect further benefit reductions in the coming years.