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Sunday, May 22, 2016
May 22, 2016 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 6:02 PM :: 3457 Views

Djou ‘Thinking About’ Run for Congress as Republican Convention Meets

HSTA announces recommendations for Hawaii State House and Senate primary races

Honolulu Rail: It Just Keeps Getting Worse

Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Big Island Council Candidate’s Eligibility

Hawaii Supreme Court Rules on Big Cabbage Case

How Taxes Work

UHERO Releases County Economic Forecasts

Staged? Rail Budget Blowout at core of case for More GE Tax Hikes

Shapiro: …The reality is the city (claims it) doesn’t have enough money to complete the full line; the half-percent rail excise tax and $1.5 billion federal share will raise $6.8 billion at most, while the Federal Transit Administration now projects (claims) it’ll cost up to $8.1 billion to reach Ala Moana.

The FTA also projects it’ll take two years longer than the city estimates, until 2024, to begin service to Ala Moana and says it’ll be flexible if the city changes course.

What better way for the city to regain trust than show it can competently build and operate a useful segment to Middle Street?

Holding out for Ala Moana or bust means another year or more of floundering while waiting to see if the extremely reluctant Legislature and City Council provide more funding….

(Pro Rail forces are being told they must push thru another tax hike or their precious project dies at Middle Street.  Just because it is bad news for rail doesn’t mean it is true.)

PBN: Honolulu may get 15-mile electric bus network connecting Ala Moana rail station to Waikiki

read … Middle

​Probate Court announces three Kamehameha Schools trustee finalists

PBN: The three finalists are Kamanamaikalani Beamer, assistant professor in the Hui Aina Momona program split between the Hawaiinuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge and the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Maenette K.P. Ah Nee-Benham, dean of the Hawaiinuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, University of Hawaii at Manoa; and C. Kanoelani Naone, CEO of the Institute for Native Pacific Education and Culture, or INPEACE….

The public is invited to submit comments, which will be filed with the Probate Court by June 14 at 4 p.m. Any written testimony may be sent to jobs@inkinen.com.

read … Trustee?

DoE: We’re out--Ige, HSTA Own School Accountability Issue

SA: The national approach to education is about to change — again — by becoming more of a state-by-state approach.

Most of the participants in this process see this kind of flexibility in federal laws as a good thing, at least in theory. But the final verdict on the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), will depend on how the process plays out.

Among the key questions: How much of a reduction in testing, as is being promised, will there really be? And how will students be assessed — and their teachers be held accountable?

And who ultimately will have the greatest influence over the new system’s final form? Gov. David Ige’s new task force, set up to guide its development so it can take effect in the 2017-18 school year? Top state Department of Education administrators, who are not on that task force?

Or Ige himself, who is involved more deeply in ESSA than many other governors across the country?

read … Building a better school system — again

Solar leasing worse than a barrel of oil

SA: …when the cost of oil purchased to burn in Hawaiian Electric Co. boilers is deferred, that money can then stay in our state and cycle through our economy, thus driving our tax system.

Simply spoken: Keep the money in the state; that is the very reason for the existence of a tax credit.

So this begs the question: How are Hawaii’s renewable energy goals being achieved by embracing the business model of solar- related leasing?

The generic terms of solar leasing include a monthly payment for 20 years (usually several thousand dollars yearly for homes and business) to be paid to the out-of-state leasing company.

The recent article, “First Oahu home receives battery-connected solar” (Star-Advertiser, May 7), featuring the governor attending and praising this event as a partial solution to our goal of 100 percent renewable for Hawaii’s future is, in fact, a sales pitch.

One is offered the wonderful opportunity to pay “only” 19 cents per kilowatt hour instead of 22 cents currently being charged by our utility.

But is Hawaii truly being served by keeping a small fraction of our ohana’s money in the state while sending most of it via lease payments, and the tax credit, out of Hawaii?

On average, the small amount of electrical savings kept in our state won’t even match the millions and millions of taxpayer dollars, or about 50 percent of the renewable energy tax credits given per year, to out-of-state leasing companies.

Since none of the major leasing companies are registered in Hawaii, they pay no taxes to speak of. They have no tax liability in Hawaii; therefore they are simply given a check, cash, a refundable credit, resulting in millions and millions of dollars per year — money that leaves the state….

read … Worse than Oil

Gangs of Homeless Vandalize Electrical Lines to Charge their Laptops, Phones

SA: …“Gangs are being established there,” said Steve Scott of the Hawaii Community Development Authority. “They’re vandalizing the electrical system. The homeless are going in and charging their phones and screwing up the timing of the sprinkler system. They destroyed the water valves trying to get water. The feces and other things are all back. There’s a problem with feral cats. There’s a problem with dogs. This is the same thing that concerned the police the last time: having so many people in a concentrated area.”

Outreach workers with the Kalihi-Palama Health Center reported that 50 to 60 people were living in the area Wednesday night, primarily in Mauka Gateway Park and on the sidewalks of Ohe and Olomehani streets near the Makai Gateway and Kakaako Waterfront parks, said Scott Morishige, the state’s homeless coordinator.

The numbers are less than a quarter of the 293 people who were counted in August. And some 250 formerly homeless people from the area have since been placed into shelters or permanent housing, Morishige said.

Two entered the city’s Hale Mauliola transitional housing project on Sand Island last week, Morishige said, and social service outreach workers were working to get four more homeless people out of Kakaako….

Keane and Aio also made the trek down Ala Moana Boulevard when the city and state cleanup crews moved in Monday and Wednesday nights.

“Everybody’s exhausted and stressed out,” Keane said. “We’re doing this back and forth night after night. It’s hard. It’s exhausting.”

Like others, John Kauaeheiwa, 22, said the combined efforts by the state and city are still not enough to get him to change his lifestyle.

“They’re trying to make us go into a shelter,” Kauaeheiwa said. “No chance. Too many rules.”….

HTH: Homeless Dude Convicted to Stealing Spear from Kamehameha Statue

read … Homeless by Choice

Bumbling Anti-GMO Activists Can’t Figure out Which End of Plant to Stick in Ground

KE: Could it be that the rose is off the bloom? The dream of self-sufficiency is fading? The fantasy of feeding the world has smacked up against the reality of hard fricking work and weekend play time?

read … Musings: No Takers

Suicide Tops Hawaii Democrats Program for Kupuna

SA: …Foster, the recently elected chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawaii’s Kupuna Caucus, ran on a platform of senior health care and end-of-life issues, including a proposed “death with dignity” law that would allow a doctor to write a prescription for a lethal drug.

The Kupuna Caucus, which represents thousands of senior Democrats and their families across the state, “is powerful in its numbers,” Foster said. “A huge percentage of the Democrat party is seniors — we have the time to make the calls, visit the Capitol and give testimony.”

Foster maintains that “the planets are aligned for 2017” for state lawmakers to support the proposed law. He cited several factors, including his election as Kupuna Caucus chairman and strong support in the state Senate.

Sens. Lorraine Inouye, Donovan Dela Cruz and Russell Ruderman introduced Senate Bill 2373 this year as a way to keep the issue at the forefront, but it didn’t receive a hearing. The bill proposed allowing a terminally ill, competent adult of at least 50 years of age to get a lethal dose of medication to end his or her life. But the measure also bans physicians and others from administering mercy killings, lethal injections and active euthanasia.….

SB2373: Text, Status

read … Just Die Already

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