Caldwell's TOD Pick Connects Smart Growth, Active Aging
Pierluisi introduces Puerto Rico Jones Act exemption legislation
Abercrombie Signs Ocean Resources Management Plan
$217M: Fake Bribe Offered to Hawaii for Fake ‘Marriage’
Djou considering options as next election nears
Borreca: Djou, an attorney, spent part of last year serving in Afghanistan as a major in the Army Reserve and part of the time running against Rep. Colleen Hanabusa for Hawaii's 1st Congressional District.
Djou picked up the most votes he has won in three contests for that seat, 96,824, but he lost.
"Having run three times in three years for the House, I think I don't have to start as early as others. Having gone through the wringer several times, I am already known," Djou said in an interview.
The options before Djou are intriguing. He first won in a special election against Hanabusa and others in May of 2010, then lost his House seat to Hanabusa in November of the same year. He lost again to Hanabusa last year.
Now with Hanabusa running for the Senate, the district is without an incumbent and Djou would be a major candidate.
"With the House controlled by the Republicans, Charles — if he decides to run for his old seat — he would be able to help Hawaii tremendously, instead of having someone from Hawaii in the minority," Chang said, referring to the fact that the GOP controls the U.S. House....
If Djou decides to forgo that race, he would be the natural GOP candidate to go up against either Hanabusa or Sen. Brian Schatz in the special Senate election, the winner of which would fill out the last two remaining years of the late Sen. Daniel Inouye's term.
With former Gov. Linda Lingle apparently out of the running for a Hawaii office next year, Djou is the only other Hawaii Republican with a large enough following to run statewide.
Or he could wait for the general election for governor. Gov. Neil Abercrombie is defending his first term against state Sen. David Ige and the winner will face a yet-to-be-determined Republican.
"I have not reached the stage yet where I have made any commitments about running for the U.S. House, or governor, or for that matter for the U.S. Senate.
read ... Djou considering options as next election nears
Obamacare: If nobody Signs Up, System Will Fail
SA: The bottom line is that in order to keep insurance rates from skyrocketing, the risk has to be spread among young people, who tend to generate less medical costs, as well as older, sicker individuals.
In Hawaii, Fitzgerald said, the uninsured group now includes the so-called "young invincibles" — young adults who decide to take a chance they won't need medical care rather than pay for insurance. But it also includes a range of other people, such as adults of all ages who have lost employment in the economic malaise and never regained health coverage.
There are sizable subsidies for lower-income and gap-group individuals, as well as tax credits to help small businesses purchase insurance affordably. The Connector Web portal links with federal and state databases and calculates all this to make the choices clear to the consumer.
Considering how many of these databases are outdated or otherwise proprietary to a specific government agency, Fitzgerald said, making all the computers talk to each other is one reason the Connector costs are so high. Let's hope the real work of getting the public primed for enrollment starts within weeks.
That's the only way all this investment can pay dividends
read ... Obamacare at critical juncture
Gay Atheists Refine Focus: Target Har, Gabbard
SA: An investigative panel of the Democratic Party of Hawaii has recommended that state Sen. Mike Gabbard be reprimanded and Rep. Sharon Har be censured for introducing a constitutional amendment last session on traditional marriage.
The panel determined that Gabbard and Har were acting contrary to the party's platform on equal rights by introducing the bills, which would ask voters whether marriage should be reserved for heterosexual couples. The panel recommended that complaints filed against nine other lawmakers who had co-sponsored the bills be dismissed.
Oahu Democrats are expected to discuss the recommendations Aug. 10.
The complaints were filed in February by convicted thief Michael 'Bitchbear' Golojuch Jr., chairman of the party's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender caucus....
Har (D, Kapolei-Makakilo) described the complaints as a "personal vendetta" by Golojuch, a constituent of Har's and Gabbard's whose family has been critical of the lawmakers in the past. She said the party's constitution and bylaws should not trump the broad immunity legislators have under the state Constitution.
"Moving the complaint forward sets a dangerous precedent for the DPH in that it now allows any member of the DPH to file a complaint against a legislator in furtherance of a personal vendetta in the name of the party and the platform," Har said in an email. "This is not what the Democratic Party stands for, which is what makes the complaint so offensive. At the end of the day, the bills were not heard by either body so to continue pursuing the complaint and sanctions is obviously personal."
The investigative panel recommended the dismissal of complaints against Senate President Donna Mercado Kim, House Vice Speaker John Mizuno and Reps. Henry Aquino, Karen Awana, Ty Cullen, Ken Ito, Calvin Say, K. Mark Takai and Clift Tsuji. A separate complaint against Tsuji before Hawaii County Democrats is pending....
Several Democrats have been working behind the scenes to try to get the complaints withdrawn. Sources have said that the complaints have complicated the discussion about whether to hold a special session on gay marriage (But Bitchbear really doesn't want 'marriage'. He just wants revenge for those he blames for his own conditions.)
SA: 1998 Schatz flier stresses traditional marriage: The U.S. senator told voters 15 years ago he was in support of "family values"
read ... Targets
Charitable Contributions: Abercrombie Bows to Laffer Curve
HUFFPO: In 2011, confronting a severe state budget deficit, Governor Abercrombie supported imposing a cap on how much taxpayers could claim for all itemized deductions, including mortgage interest and charitable donations. But after two years of seeing the adverse effects on charitable giving, the Governor urged the legislature to remove charitable deductions from the caps and restore the full incentive for giving to support the work of charities in Hawaii's communities. Earlier this month, he signed legislation that lifts the experimental cap on charitable giving.
Why did this policy change happen? Because wise lawmakers considered the new data, saw the unintended damage and took corrective action to help their constituents.
The cap on charitable deductions was expected to bring in $12 million per year to the state treasury. As a result, however, charitable donations were estimated to fall by at least $60 million per year, according to the Hawaii Community Foundation. Those numbers -- a one to five ratio of loss of good works in the community -- led to an undeniable bottom line: the tax experiment cost the community more than it generated.
Congress and policymakers elsewhere would be wise to heed this informed insight from the Office of Hawaii's Governor: "After having taken a close look at the impact this particular section of the law is having on charitable donations made to Hawaii's nonprofit organizations, we support carving out this portion of the law" to protect full deduction of charitable contributions.
read ... Lisa Maruyama, President and CEO of the Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations
TMT partners sign ‘master agreement’
HTH: The master agreement establishes a formal agreement among the international parties involved in the project. It defines the project goals, establishes a governance structure and defines the rights, obligations and benefits of the partners.
The telescope is collaboration among universities in the United States, with institutions in Canada, China, India and Japan, and with major funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation....
Looking ahead, the next step will be for the financial authorities of the partners to similarly sign the document and finalize the funding plan.
“With the scientific authorities now all on board, we welcome and look forward to the critical support of the remaining financial authorities in advancing the TMT project,” said Yang.
Construction of TMT is planned to begin in April 2014, and TMT is scheduled to begin scientific operations in 2022 on Mauna Kea....
read ... Next Step
Solar Scammers Reach for Slice of Your Electric bill
Forbes: Senate Bill 1087, which Gov. Abercrombie signed on June 27, makes solar photovoltaic systems, as well as solar thermal water heaters and big-ticket energy efficiency upgrades, available to all these underserved customers by eliminating the thorny issue of the upfront costs.
On-bill financing enables residential or commercial property owners or renters to avoid the initial out-of-pocket expense to install energy improvements. Upgrades are instead financed with loans paid back via a line item on the customer’s monthly utility bill. If the property is sold or transferred, the loan stays with the meter and would be taken over by the new property owner or tenant....
“GEMS’ [Green Energy Market Securitization] objective is to make clean energy improvements accessible and affordable,” Noreen Kam, Communications Officer, Hawaii State Energy Office, told me in an e-mail. “In the first phase, we will target financing for distributed solar, especially in the underserved markets (low to moderate income, renters, nonprofits), to bring cost savings to consumers and to contribute to the state’s clean energy goals.”.... (Translation: Poor people will give us solar scammers their money. When the payments are done, the solar system will die out and we will not be around to fix it.)
The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission must sign off on the GEMS program, said Kam, but the state expects to launch on-bill financing after the first quarter of 2014.
read ... Why Hawaii Just Became An Even Better Market For Solar
Complaint: Former Oahu Principal Abused Power While Leading School
CB: May Yamamoto, a Pearl City High special education teacher, filed a 10-page complaint against the principal with the department on June 17. Two weeks later, the superintendent of the regional office that oversees the school announced that Fujimoto was being moved to a temporary role in a regional office that focuses on helping schools adapt to a new teacher evaluation system.
The announcement said one of the school’s vice principals would be taking over starting this school year.
The detailed complaint accuses Fujimoto of shoddy leadership that created a “hostile environment” at the school, taking a toll on student performance and, in some cases, crossing legal lines. The complaint, Yamamoto argues, reflects the struggles of teachers across the state who feel “powerless” in the face of school administrators who are not scrutinized.
Hawaii State Teachers Association Executive Director Al Nagasako, who also received a copy of the complaint, told Civil Beat it’s the first time the union has heard any objections to Fujimoto.
“This (complaint) was from left field,” Nagasako said, adding that Fujimoto served as vice principal at Kapolei High School when he was its principal. In fact, Nagasako said he was so satisfied with Fujimoto’s tenure at Kapolei that he nominated her as principal of Pearl City High.
read ... Retaliation
Developers Not Waiting for TOD Rules
SA: Some of the developers, now that transit-oriented development is coming on, are starting to ask us to do development agreements as opposed to unilateral agreements. In development agreements, we can ask for more things, but in exchange for the development agreement they want us usually to freeze the regulations for 10 years. ... Essentially, it gives them some certainty and security of the kind of land-use regulations they have to comply with. ...
The only people who have come to us to ask for development agreements are people in TOD districts. It's interesting. And yet the TOD plan has not been adopted yet. ... Within the TOD district we're going to change the zoning regulation to encourage a greater live-work-play type of community. ... Once the plan for each TOD area is adopted, we would then follow with a zone change for that TOD area. So that would be the next step, after the plan is adopted. ...
What we're finding is they're actually a little nervous about the TOD plans, the developers, because they're not sure what's going to come from these TOD plans. Are they going to be asked to do even more? And the subsequent zoning that's going to come? It's going to change, they know, but they're somewhat nervous about the change, and they prefer to make a deal under the current regulations. ... They'd rather lock it in under the current rules than be subject to unknown future rules.
read ... No Fools
State has big backlog of guard applications
SA: Limited staffing and a last-minute rush by security guards to comply with a new law governing the industry has resulted in a backlog of more than 2,300 applications for identification cards awaiting processing by the state Board of Private Detectives and Guards.
At the center of the issue is Act 208 of 2010, which required that by June 30, 2013, all Hawaii security guards go through an eight-hour instructional class, be fingerprinted, undergo background checks and obtain registration cards from the board, which is part of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
An estimated 10,500 security guards and others who might fall under the definition of "acting in a guard capacity" were required to get the new cards. But as of Monday only about 4,500 ID cards had been issued out of about 7,700 applications received, the department said. About 875 people had yet to be licensed or required further review, leaving more than 2,300 that had not been processed, the DCCA reported.
read ... Lunatics, Criminals Need not Apply
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