House Finance Committee Approves $18.9 Billion Budget
House passes 11 ethics reform bills
Hawaii isle zoning review could lead to more housing
Who will be fooled? COR ‘projection’ becomes instant excuse to eliminate tax cuts
HNN: … By law, the council projections must be used to determine the state budget and decide whether tax relief proposals like Gov. Josh Green’s affordability plan are affordable ….
State Senate President Ron Kouchi said the governor likely needs to reduce expectations for lower taxes.
“I think the report simply shows that it won’t be sustainable going forward and there has to be some difficult cuts or decision made in future projects,” Kouchi said.
(IQ Test: Are you surprised? They do the same thing EVERY year.)
Saiki added that relief will likely be temporary.
“We’ll probably see if we can put sunset dates on them so that they will be short term only,” Saiki said….
(Translation: We in the House will be able to claim we did something even though we know the Senate will kill it.)
The Council on Revenues economists said big infrastructure projects like the rail and wastewater upgrades are generating jobs and putting money into the economy. But other aspects of the economy aren’t doing as well….
(TRANSLATION: COR still thinks Rail is a great idea.)
Related: Council on Revenues Suddenly Makes $328M Disappear
CB: Hawaii Lawmakers Are Wary Of Revenue Shortfalls As They Roll Out A Proposed 2-Year Spending Plan
read … Big dreams for spending tax surplus get dose of reality as economic forecast weakens
$773M Pure Waste: HART proposes $108.9 million operating budget for fiscal 2024 plus another $95M to operate trains and $569M to build tracks
SA: … For the 2024 fiscal year that begins July 1, the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation proposes an operating budget of $108.9 million, an increase of $14.4 million — or 15% — over its current adopted budget of $94.5 million. The increase, according to HART, is primarily due to debt service expenditures of $14 million — related to principal payments on outstanding general obligation bonds — which the agency says constitutes 95% of its operating budget.
During the current fiscal year, HART says it began making principal payments on those bonds to the city’s Department of Budget and Fiscal Services.
“Debt service plus fees is $103 million, that’s the main increase right there,” Lori Kahikina, the transit agency’s executive director and CEO, told Honolulu City Council’s Committee on Budget.
Meanwhile, the agency’s proposed capital budget totals $569.2 million, compared to $531.9 million in the current fiscal year. “And that’s going to cover two main projects: our City Center Guideway station project and the Waipahu Station Makai Entrance,” Kahikina said. “So that’s a 7% increase.”
In addition, HART states its main funding sources total $679.1 million. Those sources include $311.2 million in general excise tax revenue; $75.6 million in transient accommodations tax revenue; $250 million in federal funds; and $12 million in city subsidies, among other sources….
At the meeting, Council member Radiant Cordero, chair of the budget committee, asked about the status of the full funding grant agreement — the contract between HART and the Federal Transit Administration — which helps pay for the rail line and details the scope of the project’s work.
The FFGA, according to HART, is in the process of being amended to reflect the new, truncated scope of work that ends the line in Kakaako.
To that end, Kahikina said HART’s Deputy Executive Director Rick Keene has “sent several drafts to FTA.” She added, “the FFGA we’re anticipating to be done in the June-July time frame.” Once amended, Kahikina said HART would get a first allotment of $125 million in federal money. “The next (allotment) is $250 million, which is the award of that City Center Guideway contract. We’re anticipating that award maybe in the first quarter or second quarter of next year.”
The city’s Department of Transportation Services — which will take over operations and maintenance of the rail line — also addressed the Council.
For fiscal year 2024, DTS proposes an operating budget of $85.06 million for rail services. Of that, $73.4 million is for rail operations and maintenance programs, which will fund salaries, expenses and equipment associated with the rail system. In addition, $11.6 million is for rail administration and planning meant to fund salaries and expenses….
CB: Honolulu Rail Officials Need To Just Cut The Crap--HART must assume that the legacy of distrust, fragile buy-in and freak-outs is still there
read … HART proposes $108.9 million operating budget for fiscal 2024
House Budget Gives Millions More to Crooked HTA
SA: … the House Finance Committee on Wednesday whacked by 40% the operating budget of the embattled Hawaii Tourism Authority.
HTA is working to implement its strategic plans and destination management action plans for each island.
This year’s proposed HTA budget nevertheless represents an improvement compared to last year when it was left out in the cold from the state budget and two bills that continued allocations died, leaving the agency without an operating budget.
Subsequent funding of $60 million passed, only to be vetoed by then-Gov. David Ige, forcing HTA to operate on reallocated funds from previous years….
TGI: Hawaii Tourism Authority decries budget allotment
read … House to consider $18.9B state budget
‘Creating Positions’--New Law Enforcement Director Plan focuses on replacing Private Security Guards with Sheriffs
CB: … Gov. Josh Green’s pick to lead the new state Department of Law Enforcement plans to eventually phase out the use of private security guards at state-run airports in favor of deputy sheriffs and promised to work with other law enforcement agencies and shipping companies to increase inspections for fireworks at the ports.
A panel of senators on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to Jordan Lowe, who has been appointed to head the agency, which was created by a law passed last year that split off the narcotics and sheriffs divisions from the (corrupt) Department of Public Safety.
Private security guards from Universal Protection Service supplement the 80 deputies in Honolulu and comprise the entire security force at other state airports. The private security firm was awarded a three-year, $178 million contract by the state Department of Transportation to provide security services through Feb. 14, 2024.
Lowe plans to supplant the hundreds of private security guards with deputy sheriffs over the next four years. The private security guards are granted general police powers from the state to patrol the airports. But the state’s previous security contractor, Securitas, drew some scrutiny from lawmakers in the past over cases of alleged bribery among the guards….
(CLUE: Not one word about ethics or use of force training for deputies in this newly formed department.)
read … Hawaii’s New Top Cop Wants To Beef Up Airport Police, Fireworks Inspections
Roth on health care crisis: ’A matter of life or death’
HTH: … Mayor Mitch Roth called the state of health care on Hawaii Island “an emergency situation.”
“Hawaii County is really lacking in health care resources,” Roth said Wednesday in an livestreamed interview. “I think we’ve got about a 50% shortage on health care workers. We have hospitals that really need repair and really need to come up to the state of the art.”
Roth said that when he suffered a heart attack on Jan. 9, 2021, in Kona, that Kona Community Hospital “was not an option.”
Roth was taken by ambulance to Queen’s North Hawaii Community Hospital and subsequently was transferred to Hilo Medical Center.
“We really need to be building things up, especially when you think about the Life Flights being canceled for awhile,” he said. “… So we’ve been having some great conversations with the governor, with the state and with the hospitals themselves.”
Roth isn’t the only one concerned about the island’s hospitals, especially Kona Community Hospital.
Steve Freedman, whose 63-year-old wife Rhonda Dee Depontes Freedman died July 14 after a two-vehicle collision in Kona, said Wednesday he wonders why she was taken to KCH instead of the more modern North Hawaii hospital.
“She was alive for an hour and a half,” Freedman said. “The paramedics that took her (to the hospital) couldn’t even believe that she had died. They knew she was in an accident, but she was up, she was coherent, she was talking.
“They made a decision on their own to take her to Kona hospital. which we find out, is a hospital that doesn’t have a trauma team for what she needed. The state thinks that a level III (trauma center) hospital is sufficient for Kona. And it’s not.
“And my wife is dead today because they don’t have the proper tools at the hospital, and they need to upgrade it.”…
Tripler Army Medical Center, also in Honolulu, is the state’s only level II trauma hospital, but accepts only military-connected patients. Maui Memorial Medical Center hopes to be certified level II for trauma care later this year.
There has been talk for some time about building a new hospital at an estimated cost of $300 million to replace the 94-bed KCH, which was built in 1974. Hilo Medical Center is in the midst of a $50 million upgrade to add 36 acute beds to its current total of 166, and an additional 19 Intensive Care Unit beds….
SA: VIDEO: Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth joins ‘Spotlight Hawaii’
read … Roth on health care crisis: ’A matter of life or death’
Beth Fukumoto: We Passed Crisis Level With Mental Health Services A Long Time Ago
CB: … It's been six months since I was able to see a therapist, but I am one of the lucky ones….
In the past seven years, (2016) I have seen a therapist between one to four times per month. My therapists have helped me change negative thought patterns, overcome social anxiety and manage emotional distress.
These last six months have been the longest I’ve gone without an appointment.
Yet, in Hawaii, I’m one of the lucky ones.
Community First’s July 2022 Access to Care survey found that nearly 3 in 10 Hawaii residents reported that they or a family member were in need of counseling or coping skills. Health care providers said that mental health counseling was Hawaii’s most needed specialty (78%) followed closely by psychiatry (73%).
Similarly, Mental Health America’s 2023 Access to Care Rankings showed that 187,000 adults in Hawaii have a mental health condition with 20% reporting that their treatment needs were unmet. …
Senate Bill 320 establishes a working group to consider adopting the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact, which is an interstate agreement that facilitates the practice of psychology across state boundaries. Commissioning this study won’t have any immediate impact. However, if we eventually join the compact as the original bill intended, we would be expanding our resident’s pool of mental health providers. …
Senate Bill 164 appropriates an unspecified amount of funds for the Hawaii State Loan Repayment Program which helps support health care professionals, including mental health specialists. This bill is the most familiar of the three as the program has already supported 76 practitioners since 2012….
read … Beth Fukumoto: We Passed Crisis Level With Mental Health Services A Long Time Ago
Kauai North Shore Tops List of Anti-Vaxxer Schools
TGI: … The Department of Health exemption report for this school year showed that schools in Hanalei, Kilauea and Anahola had among the highest rates of religious exemptions statewide — ranging from 29 to 37 percent of the total student body.
Topping the DOH list is Hanalei School, where more than one-third (36.5 percent) of the 197 students received a religious exemption.
Almost half of the students (47.2 percent) have incomplete immunizations — a category that includes religious exemptions, medical exemptions and students with no immunization record or missing immunizations.
At Kilauea School, 31.3 percent of students had a religious exemption, and 35.6 percent had incomplete immunizations. And at Kanuikapono Public Charter School in Anahola, those percentages were 29 and 37, respectively.
The DOH Kaua‘i District Health Officer Dr. Janet Berreman warned about the risk of having large populations of unvaccinated students in a school together.
“Even more than on an individual basis, they can cause outbreaks by spreading it to their classmates. If their classmates are mostly vaccinated, you’re not so likely to see outbreaks. But if their classmates are mostly unvaccinated, there’s a much greater risk of getting transmission within that school,” Berreman said….
read … Kaua‘i North Shore schools top list of religious vaccine exemptions
County code changes might be needed before Hawaii County’s Corrupt ‘Affordable’ Housing Program can be fully improved
HTH: …In February, a report by county auditor Tyler Benner revealed that the Office of Housing and Community Development was unable to properly monitor and record the movement of affordable housing credits due to “inadequate internal controls.”
Under the county’s affordable housing policy, developers who agree to build more than the minimum number of new affordable housing units required by the county can earn affordable housing credits, which can be transferred to other developers.
But because OHCD lacks sufficient tools to track those credits, their movement between developers has become largely opaque, a fault that allowed a former county housing official to commit wire fraud using the affordable housing program.
Alan Scott Rudo, a housing community development specialist from 2006 to 2018, pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud by awarding affordable housing credits to false limited liability companies established by alleged co-conspirators, and then selling those credits to other developers for a profit.
Rudo’s share of that profit was at least $1.8 million….
Lee Loy noted that there currently is a measure, Senate Bill 1357, passing through the Legislature that makes permanent the requirement for the counties to award housing credits to DHHL….
read … County code changes might be needed before housing program can be fully improved
City clears trash from homeless encampments in Waianae
KITV: … Chantiley Omalley-Vierra says every few months city workers with big dump trucks come and clean out her belongings.
"They do this for nothing cause we're only going to put it right back up," she said. "All they're doing is come and clean up our rubbish I guess."…
The city budgets about $850,000 a year for what it calls sanitation efforts -- that it says in almost all instances are requested by community members.
"We have a lot of people on Oahu that ask for these services -- that want things cleaned up," Krucky added. "I mean some of the cleanup is stuff that you really want cleaned up."…
read … City clears homeless encampments in Waianae
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