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Entries for 'Tom Yamachika'
Sunday, July 25, 2021 |
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Special Land and Development Fund, Revisited
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 3197 Views :: Ethics, Land Use, OHA
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... rent for the property was $100,000 while subleases of the same property brought in $300,000 ....
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Sunday, July 18, 2021 |
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Shoring Up Water Transportation
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 3176 Views :: Jones Act, Small Business, Cost of Living
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... On July 9, 2021, President Biden issued the “Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy.” There wasn’t much media coverage ....
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Sunday, July 11, 2021 |
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Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave?
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 2439 Views :: Taxes, COVID-19
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... Does our government overreach? Yes. Why does it do that? Because we let them ....
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Wednesday, July 7, 2021 |
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Vetoes and Overrides!
By Tom Yamachika @ 7:17 PM :: 2107 Views :: Taxes
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... HB58 “Enola Gay Frankenbill” really is dead this time ....
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Sunday, July 4, 2021 |
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Intent to Veto--the Enola Gay Frankenbill
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 2542 Views :: Hawaii State Government, Taxes
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... Hopefully, the bad stuff will die and remain dead ....
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Sunday, June 27, 2021 |
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Secret Tax Relief for Hotels on Maui?
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 3402 Views :: Maui County, Ethics, Taxes, Tourism
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“...the coronavirus pandemic has challenged the County to make many unprecedented decisions. One such decision was to reduce the Assessed Values of Hotel and Resort properties due to the catastrophic drops in occupancy experienced by that industry....”
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Sunday, June 20, 2021 |
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Showdown of the Juggernauts
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1868 Views :: Taxes
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... Taxing Income in the New World of Teleworking ....
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Sunday, June 13, 2021 |
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Taxing Government Largesse
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 2942 Views :: Small Business, Taxes, COVID-19
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...“Landlords are subject to GET on these amounts whether the payments are received from the tenants or directly from the agency that administers the relief program on behalf of the tenant.” The same reasoning applies to income tax, federal and state....
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Sunday, June 6, 2021 |
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Enjoying Your Maui Resort Condo? Now Pay Up!
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 2849 Views :: Maui County, Taxes
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... Some taxpayers on Maui are getting a nasty surprise this year because they didn’t do anything, and their real property tax rate doubled ....
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Sunday, May 30, 2021 |
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A Government of (Suspended) Laws, Not Men
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 2281 Views :: COVID-19
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... Government should be based on clearly written laws, and not on the unpredictable will of one or even a few people ....
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Sunday, May 23, 2021 |
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Teacher Payments and the “Me Too” Syndrome
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 2634 Views :: Education K-12, Labor, COVID-19
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... House Bill 613, another bill that has undergone radical metamorphosis while in our Legislature. ...
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Sunday, May 16, 2021 |
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General Excise Exemptions to be Shut Off for Two Years?
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 3664 Views :: Small Business, Tax Credits, Taxes
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... “Frankenbill” House Bill 58 has cleared the Legislature and is on the Governor’s desk waiting to become law ....
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Sunday, May 9, 2021 |
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State/Federal Changes in Income Tax Coming
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2578 Views :: Taxes
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... Income tax is a complicated enough subject already ....
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Sunday, May 2, 2021 |
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Counties, the TAT Is Now Your Problem Too!
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 2359 Views :: Taxes, Tourism
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... For many years, the counties and the State have been bickering about how much support from the State’s transient accommodations tax (TAT) they should get ....
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Sunday, April 25, 2021 |
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The Whackee Strikes Back!
By Tom Yamachika @ 2:38 PM :: 3512 Views :: Ethics, Hawaii State Government
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... and he pulls no punches ....
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Sunday, April 18, 2021 |
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State Auditor Facing a Whack Job?
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 4724 Views :: Ethics, Hawaii State Government, OHA
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... the report spends lots of time reviewing the Auditor’s recent actions involving the Office of Hawaiian Affairs ....
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Sunday, April 11, 2021 |
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Bride of Frankenbill
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 2451 Views :: Taxes
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... our lawmakers are not stopping at just one Frankenbill ....
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Sunday, April 4, 2021 |
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Return of the Frankenbill!
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 2720 Views :: Taxes
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... assembling bits and pieces from cadavers and then bringing it to life using some unexplained method ....
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Sunday, March 28, 2021 |
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Maintenance of Effort, Part 2
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2515 Views :: Education K-12, Taxes
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... SB815 creates a “public education stabilization trust fund” ....
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Sunday, March 21, 2021 |
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National Attention!
By Tom Yamachika @ 4:00 AM :: 3082 Views :: Taxes
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“...Confiscation in Paradise: Move to Hawaii, pay the nation’s highest state income-tax rate....”
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Sunday, March 14, 2021 |
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C’mon, Let’s Soak the Rich!
By Tom Yamachika @ 4:00 AM :: 2476 Views :: Small Business, Taxes
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... a kind of crabs-in-the-bucket argument ....
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Sunday, March 7, 2021 |
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The Enola Gay Has Left the Hangar
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2266 Views :: Taxes
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... Senate Bill 56, with the ominous title “Relating to Revenue Generation,” has been granted its first hearing by the Senate Ways and Means Committee ....
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Sunday, February 28, 2021 |
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More Taxes for Movies and TV
By Tom Yamachika @ 4:25 AM :: 2707 Views :: Small Business, Taxes
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... “I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.” ....
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Sunday, February 21, 2021 |
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Maintenance of Effort
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2795 Views :: Education K-12, Taxes
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... We need to start recognizing that this “dedicated funding source” rhetoric is taking us down the wrong path ....
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Sunday, February 14, 2021 |
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Taxes: More 'Creative' Thought at Our Legislature
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2168 Views :: Taxes
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... Hold on to your wallets, folks, because this year’s great legislative adventure has just begun! ....
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Sunday, February 7, 2021 |
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What Are They Thinking?
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2966 Views :: Economy, Taxes
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"... At the Legislature, committee hearings have begun in earnest and it doesn’t seem at all like we are in an economic crisis ...."
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Sunday, January 31, 2021 |
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Grim Reality of Unemployment Taxes
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 3742 Views :: Labor, Small Business, Taxes, COVID-19
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... Our unemployment system, as of January 8, 2021, has paid out $3.4 billion in unemployment benefits ....
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Sunday, January 24, 2021 |
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More Taxes on the Rich – But Guess What, You’re Rich
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:16 AM :: 3794 Views :: Taxes
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... Ige’s Chief of Staff and former Director of Taxation Linda Chu Takayama told the House Finance Committee a little more about the revenue enhancement measures (tax hikes) that the Administration is going to propose ....
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Sunday, January 17, 2021 |
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Barreling Toward a Tax Hike!
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 3924 Views :: Energy, Hawaii State Government, Taxes, Cost of Living
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... “the carbon tax” is most likely the “barrel tax” ....
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Sunday, January 10, 2021 |
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Scrutinize the Big Agencies!
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2668 Views :: Hawaii State Government, Taxes
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... There is still a lot of real estate between $0.3 billion and $1.4 billion a year ....
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Sunday, January 3, 2021 |
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Gaming on Hawaiian Homelands
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 3265 Views :: DHHL, Gambling
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... possible unintended consequences ....
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Sunday, December 27, 2020 |
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Collective Bargaining Agreement: Supreme Law of the Land?
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:01 AM :: 3764 Views :: Hawaii State Government, Labor
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... “The following specific provisions of law are suspended, as allowed by federal law … Chapter 89, HRS, collective bargaining in public employment.” ....
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Sunday, December 20, 2020 |
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Don’t Give Me Back Rent, I Want to Continue Hiding from Tax
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 4028 Views :: Law Enforcement, Small Business, Taxes, COVID-19
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... Developments during this COVID crisis have brought out tax scofflaws in some of the most unexpected ways ....
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Sunday, December 13, 2020 |
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Business Entity Registration Scam
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2591 Views :: Ethics, Small Business
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... The first problem is that some people think that the letter comes from a government agency. It doesn’t ....
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Sunday, December 6, 2020 |
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Tale of the Tape
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 3121 Views :: Economy, Taxes, COVID-19
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...“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”....
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Sunday, November 29, 2020 |
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Eighth Amendment Protects Us from Massive Tax Penalties
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2463 Views :: Taxes
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... In a case called Timbs v. Indiana decided just last year, however, the U.S. Supreme Court made a couple of key points ....
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Sunday, November 22, 2020 |
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Standardless Spending, Part 2?
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2862 Views :: Ethics, Hawaii State Government, COVID-19
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...B&F basically told the departments, “Here’s your money. Go spend it.”....
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Sunday, November 15, 2020 |
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Where’s All the Money?
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2524 Views :: Hawaii State Government
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...$2.28 billion within 257 accounts....
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Sunday, November 8, 2020 |
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A Ham-Fisted Way of Getting Folks Back to Work
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 3094 Views :: Honolulu County, Labor, Tourism
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... The proposal is called Bill 80 ....
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Sunday, November 1, 2020 |
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Someone Was Listening to the Howl in the Woods
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 3046 Views :: Ethics, Hawaii State Government, COVID-19
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... the Governor issued a Fourteenth Supplementary Proclamation, in which the language suspending the Procurement Code was radically changed ....
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Sunday, October 25, 2020 |
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Making Up for Budget Shortfalls
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 2849 Views :: Hawaii State Government, Taxes
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...we have a state budget hole of more than 2 billion dollars....
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Sunday, October 18, 2020 |
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Pulling Teeth at OHA
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 3494 Views :: Ethics, OHA
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...An accounting firm can’t arrest people, throw them in jail, or otherwise find that they have committed illegal activity....
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Sunday, October 11, 2020 |
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Academic Leadership
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 3599 Views :: Hawaii State Government, Higher Education, Labor, COVID-19
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...an example of leadership in the face of the COVID-19 crisis....
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Sunday, October 4, 2020 |
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Standardless Spending
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 3357 Views :: Honolulu County, Rail, COVID-19
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We are feverishly trying to spend federal dollars for the common good....
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Sunday, September 27, 2020 |
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Veto of the “Revolving Door” Bill
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 2725 Views :: Ethics, Hawaii State Government
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...The bill addresses the appearance of corruption....
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Sunday, September 20, 2020 |
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Abercrombie and Waihee on COVID Leadership
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 2698 Views :: Hawaii State Government, COVID-19
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...The governors zeroed in on two principal drivers of our government’s response, namely structural capability and leadership....
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Sunday, September 13, 2020 |
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State Auditor’s Review of GET Exemptions and Exclusions
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 3251 Views :: Hawaii State Government, Tax Credits, Taxes
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... The Auditor was supposed to start on the first chunk last year and finish the report before the start of the 2020 legislature, but ....
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Sunday, September 6, 2020 |
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So Do We Have Contact Tracers?
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 3155 Views :: Ethics, COVID-19
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... “They have to be trained on what we do." --Dr. Sarah Park .…
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Sunday, August 30, 2020 |
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Case of the Missing Contact Tracer Millions
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:06 AM :: 4844 Views :: Ethics, Hawaii State Government, COVID-19
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...I’m not the only one trying to dig up information on where the money went....
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Sunday, August 23, 2020 |
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Is Our Share of CARES Act Money Disappearing?
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2643 Views :: COVID-19
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...having to forgo, or pay back, a bunch of that money is not going to be a happy thing....
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