Small Business Protests Ige's GE Tax Hike
Feds: Hawaii DHS is Number 1 in Foodstamps
DBEDT Applauds PUC’s Approval of 'Green' Subprime Loan Securitization Program
Forum: Will Hawaii's State Government Go Bust in 2016?
Let’s Rethink Our Property Tax System
With Billions of Tourist Dollars at Stake, DoH Quickly Slaps Down Talk of Ebola
HMSA Cancels 46,000 Policies as Obamacare Medicaid Advantage Cuts Kick In
KITV: The healthcare company sent out letters to customers to let them know the Akamai Advantage Secure plan will not be offered after the end of the year.
Federal law prevented HMSA from talking about the plan prior to Wednesday, which is when the open enrollment period to switch plans begins.
read ... No Advantage
HMSA Massive Rate Hikes for Medicare Advantage
SA: Hawaii Medical Service Association plans to discontinue its five Medicare Advantage plans for 46,000 seniors on Dec. 31.
The state's largest health insurer, which covers the bulk of Hawaii's Medicare population, estimates it lost about $64.1 million last year on its plans -- called Akamai Advantage -- due to higher-than- expected medical claims as well as lower federal Medicare reimbursements.
The company will begin offering four new higher-premium plans in 2015 ranging from $70 and $126 a month on Oahu and $152 and $195 on the neighbor islands. HMSA currently has five Akamai Advantage plans with premiums ranging from zero to $91 a month.
HMSA said it is not changing its Medicare plans to save money, but to "better reflect the benefit needs and cost of caring for our members."
AlohaCare announced last month that it also is ending its main Medicare Advantage health insurance plan in 2015, a move that will affect 1,300 senior members, after losses of $18.5 million since 2006.
KHON: Co-Pays Going Up, Too
read ... Thanks, Obama
Wahiawa Hospital not paying docs, Could be forced into Bankruptcy
SA: Wahiawa General Hospital is cutting the equivalent of 100 full-time positions amid claims that it owes University of Hawaii medical school physicians $800,000 in back pay.
The UH John A. Burns School of Medicine says Wahiawa General hasn't paid a group of UH-affiliated physicians for the past 10 months. The medical school is threatening to pull its residency program from Wahiawa General after more than 20 years.
"We're at a point where we have to have some payment for these physicians to move forward," said UH Medical School Dean Jerris Hedges. "From our point of view, it would be very unfortunate for Wahiawa to be forced … into a bankruptcy situation. We would like to see an alternative solution. Part of that is to bring partners to share in the cost of training future doctors."...
The residency program at Wahiawa is the only one in the state for family medicine doctors.
KHN: Medicare Fines 2,610 Hospitals In Third Round Of Readmission Penalties
read ... Hospital not Paying Docs
Welcome effort to decentralize DOE
SA: The birth of a new public-education think tank in Hawaii represents the evolution of thought to action, as critics of Hawaii's centralized Department of Education have galvanized current Board of Education members, DOE administrators, principals and teachers to find out more about reforms that would invest more authority in the educators actually interacting with students and parents at the school level.
The creation of the Education Institute of Hawaii rightly moves the subject of school empowerment squarely into the community realm, expanding a much-needed conversation that so far has occurred mainly within the Department of Education. This renewed focus on decentralizing the state office is overdue.
School empowerment means that the people closest to the students have the most say about how campuses are run. This philosophy aligns authority and accountability, and is achieved only when a school district operates with a high level of transparency, with ready access to information about financial, human and other resources.
CB: Hawaii Students Deserve Teacher Leaders
read ... Decentralize
What Happened to the Hawaii Teachers Union Preschool Ballot Campaign?
CB: The Hawaii State Teachers Association has spent at least $142,290 on its campaign to discourage Hawaii voters from approving a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the state to spend public money on private preschool programs, according to publicly available documents.
But as of this week, a TV ad and other related media paid for by the HSTA are nowhere to be seen. The commercials were running on a number of television stations last week.
Stryker Weiner & Yakota, the union’s public relations firm, sent out a press release on Sept. 22 announcing the HSTA’s campaign and distributing links to the commercial on Vimeo and the union’s webpage for the campaign.
The links, however, have not worked since at least Sept. 29.
Lea Okudara, a spokeswoman for the union, confirmed to Civil Beat on Monday that “the HSTA ads are currently not running” even though the union’s original contracts with the stations included spots that were slated to run this week.
Okudara said Wednesday she didn’t know why the ads are off the air. The HSTA’s executive director, Al Nagasako, didn’t respond to a request for comment Wednesday, and the union’s president, Wil Okabe, was out of town and unavailable for an interview.
Records from the state’s Campaign Spending Commission and Federal Communications Commission show that the commercials were paid for by the HSTA’s political action committee, which is funded by the union. That includes a $140,727 payment to Fuel Communications Inc. to run the TV commercials on KHON, KITV, KGMB and KHNLthrough the Nov. 4 election, and $1,562 to Stryker Weiner & Yakota to produce the commercial.
read ... What Happened?
Maui Anti-GMO Law: $85,000 fine & Year in Jail for One Papaya Tree
SA: It stipulates that "any person" who grows as little as a single GMO papaya tree or 10 GMO corn plants will be subject to fines of $10,000 for the first violation, which the initiative seems to say means one plant, cultivated on one day. After that, the fines escalate to $25,000 for a second offense (day two for the single papaya) and $50,000 for a "third and subsequent violation."
Pity the poor little papaya, incurring $85,000 in fines for being in the ground for three days.
But that's not all. There is also a section headed "criminal recourse." It says that every single violation is a misdemeanor crime, subject to an additional fine of $2,000 per offense (remember that an "offense" is growing one GMO plant for one day), or imprisonment for one year "or both, for each offense."
KE: Musings: Gobbledy Goop
read ... Plant a Papaya, Go to Jail
PUC Approval of $150M Green Bank shrouded in mystery
IM: The Green Bank will have a five-member board controlled by the Governor with no representation by those who would most benefit from their service. (HRS § 196-63) ...
GEMS is a collection of sub-programs lumped together. That idea of understanding how DBEDT’s GEMS program fits into DBEDT’s Big Picture was never submitted by DBEDT nor questioned by the PUC.
Instead the PUC gave DBEDT the entire store. “Establishing …hard-and-fast Program design parameters may be unnecessarily restrictive and limiting with respect to the establishment of the GEMS Program at this stage. …It is not appropriate to set specific parameters at this time that would limit DBEDT's flexibility in allocating Program funds between different customer types.” ...
On-Bill Financing is a separate open regulatory proceeding (Docket Number 2014-0129).
In approving the DBEDT Green Bank, the commission linked the two dockets and commented on an open proceeding.
“The commission strongly supports the use of the On-bill Mechanism for the GEMS Program, and approves use of the On-bill Mechanism for the GEMS Program once the details of that On-bill Mechanism are finalized.” ...
In the docket “DBEDT proposes to expand the list of eligible clean energy technologies it initially proposed in its Application to include …utility grid modernization.” (Smart Grid Technology)
The commission agreed, and also added “technologies that incorporate a water-energy nexus, including sewage and waste water treatment.”
“While the commission believes that Act 211 places a priority on customer-side clean energy technology solutions, it does not agree that GEMS Program funding - even in an initial deployment of funding -should be strictly limited to only Solar PV systems and those technologies that may assist with interconnecting such systems.”
read ... PUC Approval of $150M Green Bank shrouded in mystery
Schatz sits on the Senate National Parks Subcommittee, Can't Get Two Lanes for Puna
SA: Hawaii County officials are fronting the estimated $14.5 million cost to rebuild about 9 miles of Chain of Craters Road from Kalapana through federal land in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park that's been buried by previous lava flows. While Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi insists that residents of lower Puna need a two-lane emergency highway, the park superintendent reiterated the federal government's position that Chain of Craters Road needs to be rebuilt on federal land as one lane of unpaved highway to reduce damage to ancient archaeological sites and endangered species.
Under the plan, traffic would move one way out of Puna through Kalapana and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in the mornings and one way back toward lower Puna in the afternoon....
Schatz, who sits on the Senate National Parks Subcommittee, was unavailable for comment.
Gabbard said she has yet to see evidence from federal officials that two lanes of Chain of Craters Road will cause more potential damage than one lane.
"I haven't seen something that they've presented in terms of a documented study to back up that claim," Gabbard said. "I do understand that's their position."
Orlando said Schatz's office has received "information on resource impacts."
read ... A Pathetic Weakling
Commission proposes tiered property taxes for million dollar homes
KITV: Under the compromise, properties would be assessed under the same rate as other homeowners for the first $1 million of value. Any additional value would then be taxed at a higher rate that has yet to be determined. The advisory commission believes the graduated tax rate should be revenue neutral, meaning the city would not lose much of the $33 million it’s now receiving from the Residential A classification.
"The rate for those might be anywhere from $9 to $10 (for every $1,000 of value) to be revenue neutral,” said Gary Kurokawa, deputy director of the city’s Department of Budget and Fiscal Services. “I think they're just pushing the difference onto the higher end properties."
Councilman Ikaika Anderson said he and his colleagues at the City Council will review the advisory commission’s proposed compromise for Residential A properties, but he doesn’t feel it should necessarily be revenue neutral. Anderson was one of two council members to vote against Bill 42 last year, which created the Residential A classification.
"So, if we're going to go revenue neutral, are we going to hold up two bats and say we have a metal bat and a wooden bat? Which one am I going to hit you with," he said.
Currently, homeowners who fall under Residential A and have not received a home exemption, pay $6 for every $1,000 of value, compared to the $3.50 rate paid by other property owners. That means someone without an exemption who has a home valued at $1 million will pay $2,500 more in property taxes.
read ... Tax Hike
Personnel shortage closes ambulance unit in Honolulu
HNN: A paramedic shortage caused a gap in ambulance coverage over the weekend. However the City maintains response time to emergencies was not compromised.
It is a concerning thought, not having paramedics on duty. But the Emergency Medical Services spokesperson says it really only takes being down one paramedic for it to happen.
The ambulance unit was stationed at Kuakini Medical Center. It covers the area from Chinatown to the airport. On Sunday morning from midnight to 8:00 am there were no paramedics on duty....
The personnel shortage was not because of sick leave, but vacation time did play a part. The department recently switched to 12 hour shifts which had helped. However it's still working out the kinks.
"It has not happened since the change to the new 12 hour schedule. But even with the 12 hour schedule we still have vacancies," said Enright.
There are 25 vacancies in total which doesn't help. There are also 13 new EMT's that will be starting this month and another recruit class starts next month.
Reality: UPW Scores Massive Pay Hikes After Disrupting Honolulu Ambulance Service
read ... UPW Still Got a Big Fat Raise
How to take part in Monday's drive-thru voter registration
HNN: The deadline to register to vote in the general election is October 6, 2014. After a successful turnout for the drive-thru voter registration back in July, election officials will once again hold drive-thru voter registration events on October 6 at various locations. Individuals may drive to designated locations and register on the spot.
read ... Register to Vote
Developer to Court: Make Homeowners Stop Leaking Documents
CB: An Ewa developer being sued by home buyers unhappy that the company never built a promised marina is now asking the court to prohibit the plaintiffs from releasing additional information to the press about the project.
Haseko’s motion for a protective order follows a Civil Beat column last week that used the case file to detail how the company engaged in an intensive public relations effort to spin its plan to ditch the marina as positive for the buyers. Many of the homeowners had purchased properties at premium prices because they believed they would have access to a marina and an upscale resort lifestyle....
“What the column really did was explain — in their words — how they were influencing public opinion,” Lind said Wednesday. “And now they’re going to court to say the public shouldn’t know how they were being manipulated....
read ... Developer to Court: Make Homeowners Stop Leaking Documents
Half of Oahu Hoarding Plastic Bags
SA: In our recent Big Q poll, the majority of readers (346) said they plan to start hoarding plastic takeout bags in response to the news. I imagine some began hoarding as soon as they heard Honolulu was considering a ban.
read ... Hoarding Plastic bags
WaPo: Hawaii Best State for Women
WaPo: Women make 83 percent of what men earn in Hawaii, just two percentage points below Maryland, the state with the smallest gender pay gap. Women in Nevada, Vermont, New York, California, Florida and Maine also make at least 83 percent of what men do, according to a study published this yearby the American Association of University Women. At the top of the list isthe District, where women’s median earnings are 90 percent of men’s.
Hawaii is also one of 14 states where women are more likely to have completed a bachelor’s degree than men; 29.7 percent of women in the Aloha State graduated from college, compared with 28.9 percent of men, according to the National Center for Education Statistics .
Women make up a substantial portion of Hawaii’s elected officials, too. The state ranks third for gender parity in statewide political officeholders, according to Representation 2020, a group that works to raise awareness about the underrepresentation of women in government. Only New Hampshire and Washington rank higher.
read ... Hawaii #1
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