Hanabusa Attacks Schatz for Accepting Contributions from Akaka Bill Opponents
Ige Renews Oath of Fealty to HSTA
Lassner: We Must Polish the Jewel, not the Apple
HECO Proposes 'Demand Response' Billing, Remote Shutoff
Absentee ballot fraud incident has Kauai police, elections officials on alert
Roofers: Obamacare Threatens Union Health Plan
Medicaid Should Be Included in Paul Ryan’s Anti-Poverty Proposal
Ige Pushed GE Tax Hike
CB: Ige once considered a bill that would have raised the state’s general excise tax — something that would be rough for everyone in the state, not just seniors. Abercrombie even called the measure a pension tax bill....
The governor does not want to jump on the Colorado and Washington state bandwagon in legalizing marijuana. He is particularly worried about the impact on youth. But he is open to the idea of decriminalization as a potential revenue source.
Ige is not open to the idea. But he does want to look at establishing medical marijuana dispensaries for qualified patients. Both issues have been before lawmakers in recent sessions....
And an issue that surfaced at a forum in Waimea last week came up again Tuesday: Ige says the state is at risk of losing $800 million in federal funding for transportation projects because the administration has not responded to warnings. Ige said that is hurting projects on the Big Island like work on Queen Kaahumanu Highway and thus hurting the economy and jobs.
Abercrombie said that was “completely false,” “a complete fabrication” and “a complete falsehood.” The holdup in using the funds has to do with things like lawsuits against certain projects, he said. The federal money is not at risk....
The governor’s main gripe was that Ige kept speaking in what Abercrombie called “glittering generalities.”
He said that Ige’s comments on policy lacked virtually any substance.
The governor grew particularly exasperated when the candidates were asked about whether an appointed or elected state Board of Education was preferable. Ige said the appointed board had resulted in taking power away from principals. He said that had led to schools’ decline.
Abercrombie almost blew his top. He said Ige’s statements amounted to “the most astounding statement” he had heard in the campaign, and he insisted that Ige reconsider his words. Abercrombie said Ige had called Board of Education members “dictators.”
read ... Tax Hikers
7,100 Oahu Homeowners Whacked by 71% Tax Hike
SA: What municipal leaders essentially billed as a plan to soak the rich — and the offshore rich at that — has caught too many everyday homeowners off guard and trapped them in untenable financial situations, unable to pay nearly doubled 2014 property-tax bills on homes they or their families have occupied for decades and have no intention of selling.
Some of these problems were predictable, and could have been prevented by a more comprehensive public-awareness campaign to advise Oahu property owners of a new, much higher tax rate for homes worth more than $1 million. Such a campaign would have served to remind owner-occupants to apply for the exemption that mitigates the impact of a tax hike aimed at the owners of expensive second homes.
Roughly 7,400 properties on Oahu fall into the new Residential A tax class, which carries a rate 71 percent higher than the usual residential property tax rate.
More than a few homeowners in this class could have qualified for the owner-occupant exemption — if they had known on a timely basis to apply for it.
The other tax jolt is the result of Oahu's tight housing market, which drives up prices so high that when one neighbor sells, others on the street see a higher tax bill.
read ... Homes tax mess needs fixing
Doctors 'Pay for Performance'?
SA: In health care, "pay for performance" refers to the practice of payers and other health-field entities to encourage or require the performance or execution of certain prescribed tests or activities in the belief that they can attain better health care.
Examples of these guidelines are the requirements of insurance companies and payers such as Medicaid and Medicare that tests such as Hemoglobin A1c, blood glucose levels and eye examinations be required in the care of diabetics, and that blood pressures and antihypertensive medications be administered to patients with high blood pressure in order to be paid or reward-ed with a bonus.
Many physicians chafe under these requirements and refer to their adherence as "cookbook medicine." ... the devil is in the details.
In the presence of 184 associations and specialties that range from psychiatry to allergy, orthopedics, forensic pathology and dermatology to emergency medicine and so on almost ad infinitum, it is clear that codifying the requirements of good practice would be daunting.
read ... 'Cookbook medicine' debatable
Shake-up renews debate about need for Manoa chancellor
HNN: In 1985, then-President Albert Simone consolidated the functions of the UH president and Manoa chancellor with the support of the Board of Regents. 17 years later, however, Peter Englert became chancellor after the regents approved then-President Kenneth Mortimer's recommendation to separate the jobs.
"We objected at the time. We said this is going to duplicate the administrative structure at the system level and at Manoa, and it has," said J.N. Musto, executive director of the UH Professional Assembly.
State Rep. K. Mark Takai said he initially supported the separation since the move wasn't supposed to create additional costs, but he quickly changed his mind.
"My estimation was that the separation of the two - system president and the Manoa chancellor - was costing at least $6 million a year," said Takai.
Takai and others believe that Apple's pending departure is the perfect opportunity to take another look at reorganization.
read ... Who needs this?
Chaos: BLNR Resignations Stall Development Approvals
CB: The board has just four of its nine members, and needs at least five to make a quorum.
Ironically: Weasels: Hawaii Ethics Commission Seals Financial Disclosures for Current Board Members
read ... No Quorum
Another Rate Hike: HECO Proposes Higher Peak Rates
SA: The Hawaiian Electric Co. said Tuesday it has filed a plan with the state to provide customers incentives to use more electricity during off-peak hours and less power during peak hours.
Hawaiian Electric said it filed the "Integrated Demand Response Portfolio Plan" with the Public Utilities Commission on Monday.
The plan involves "offering lower or higher prices during certain times of the day (to) ... encourage customers to shift energy use to specific times," Hawaiian Electric said in a news release.
The plan applies to residential, commercial, industrial and water pumping customers, the utility said.
read ... How About Lower off-peak rates instead
Rent Seekers Promise to Charge a lot for Geothermal Electricity
CB: "Geothermal: Not ‘Easy, Simple, Cheap or Wrong’"
Reality: Solomon Pushes for Approval of Mililani Trask's Overpriced Geothermal Contract
read ... Rent Seekers
Gabbard votes to condemn Obama for Guantánamo Bergdahl swap
TH: The House Armed Services Committee voted Tuesday to condemn the president for violating a law to give Congress 30 days' advance notice before releasing Guantánamo Bay detainees.
The vote, 34-25, condemned the president for deciding in May to release five senior Taliban leaders from the Guantánamo Bay detention facility without a 30-day notification required by law, in exchange for Afghanistan prisoner of war Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
“Today the Committee took one of many steps to hold the Administration accountable for breaking the law and putting Americans at risk with their ill-considered transfer of senior Taliban terrorists," Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) said after the vote.
read ... Condemn Obama
Poetic Justice: Sovereignty Mortgage Scammer Loses House in his own Scheme
BIVN: Gumapac and Kaiama were also prepared to call Dr. Keanu Sai and Professor Williamson Chang as expert witnesses. The work of both men was recently cited in a highly publicized letter to Secretary of State John Kerry written by Office of Hawaiian Affairs CEO Kamana’opono Crabbe (later rescinded by the OHA Board of Trustees) asking for clarification – among other things – on the continued existence of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
(Give these crooks $4000 and you can lose your house, too.)
Reality: Sovereignty Mortgage Scammer Keanu Sai at it again with help from Legislators, Maui Council, University
read ... But he's thrilled, just thrilled to dodge trespassing charges
Suit: Foster Parents Payments Woefully Inadequate
SA: The new age-tiered system is indexed to documented costs contained in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Expenditures on Children by Families annual report, according to the department.
But Alston said that however the department conducted its research, it continues to get it wrong. He described the practice of making payments comparable to the mainland as "a fraud" because it fails to consider that Hawaii has the highest cost of living in the country.
"They were supposed to adjust it annually but never did," he said. "With inflation the rate should have nearly doubled by now."
Two years ago foster parents in California won a victory in federal court on the same issue, forcing their state to increase monthly reimbursement rates. They went up from a range of $446 to $627, depending on the child's age, to $609 to $761.
Victor Geminiani, executive director of Hawai'i Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, said Hawaii's new payment remains well below the rate where it should be if federal guidelines were followed.
"We're absolutely going forward" with the suit, he said.
read ... Foster parents' raises fail to stop lawsuit
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