Gallup: Hawaii Liberals Outnumber Conservatives by Only 1.9%
Farmer: HB1514 is 'The Last Shovel of Dirt on Our Graves'
Obama Budget would Increase Top Marginal Capital Gains Tax Rate in Hawaii to 35.8%--#2 in USA
Ige Appoints Carpenters Union Political Director to DLIR
Hawaii Family Advocates' Dream Team to Tackle Legislative Priorities
Ige Announces HCDA Nominations
Federal Report Calls HART's 'Minimal Cost Containment--alarming’
KHON: A federal oversight committee is blasting Honolulu’s rail project, calling it “alarming” and “not sufficient.”
A new review looked at the rising cost of building the rail system, putting the project at $500 million to $600 million over-budget.
It also criticizes Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, which oversees the project, saying its effort to contain costs has been minimal and is alarming.
The report was put together by the Project Management Oversight Committee, which monitors large projects to make sure they’re progressing in time, within budget, and in accord with approved plans and specifications. It is then sent to the Federal Transportation Administration for review....
The report points out that that the general excise tax collections have fallen short by nearly $41 million and there is concern that the current estimated contingency is not sufficient....
The report also has concerns with delays in construction. The Farrington Highway contract is about three months behind schedule with about one mile of the guideway has already been built. The Kamehameha Highway guideway is about seven months behind....
The report adds that HART received a schedule from the contractor to speed things up but that was rejected....
LINK: Dec 2014 POMC Report "The PMOC has reviewed and discussed the project cost on a monthly basis with HART in an effort to ensure that cost issues are proactively addressed, and PMOC has provided numerous cost mitigation recommendations that HART should give consideration to implement. However, since completion of the 2014 Risk Assessment Refresh effort, minimal cost containment measures have been accomplished by HART. This unfavorable trend of minimal cost containment is alarming. The PMOC will continue to hold Cost Containment Workshops with HART on a monthly basis to ensure HART begins properly implementing significant cost containment measures."
read ... Alarming
HB1468: Iwase Opposes Bill to De-Authorize Big Cable
IM: In 2012 the Legislature authorized the public utilities commission to establish a regulatory structure for the installation and implementation of an interisland high-voltage electric transmission cable system, or undersea cable. SB 2785 SD2 HD2 became Act 165.
In the current Legislative session there are bills to overturn that authorization. SB 1339 was introduced by Senators Baker, Green, Inouye and Keith-Agaran. HB 1468 was introduced by Representatives McKelvey, Creagan, Lee, Lowen, Saiki, Ward and Woodson.
The House bill was heard this morning by the House Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection (EEP).
Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) did not testify. Puna Pono Alliance, Friends of Lana`i, Life of the Land and fourteen Individuals supported the bill.
Lining up to oppose the bill were the Blue Planet Foundation (BPF), NextEra Energy Hawaii (NEEH), Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), the Consumer Advocate (CA) and the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).
The Committee will vote on the bill on February 10.
Randy Iwase, Chair of the Public Utilities Commission, wrote that “the Commission currently has an open regulatory proceeding on this issue (Docket No. 2013-0169). The Commission opened this proceeding to solicit information and evaluate whether an Oahu-Maui island grid interconnection may be in the public interest. …The Commission believes that all options and alternatives should remain available for policymakers and decision makers to consider.”
read ... Iwase Makes Ige Administration Position Known
Chief's Wife 'Angry' at Grandmother with Lost Home in 'Mortgage' Deal
SA: Kealoha said she did not tell her grandmother's other eight children, including her father, about the reverse mortgage and condominium purchase because she felt it was up to her grandmother and uncle to do so.
After the condominium purchase there was about $148,000 left over from the reverse mortgage.
Kealoha said she spent some of the money on expenditures her grandmother authorized, including furniture for the condominium, some maintenence frees, and gas cards for Gerard as well as concert tickets for Gerard, his son and their friends.
The rest of the money was used for her own expenses including an inauguration breakfast for her husband and car lease payments, because Kealoha said it was money owed to her. She said she used her own money for the down payment on the condominium, monthly rent on it as part of an early occupancy agreement when the reverse mortgage took longer than expected, and on maintenance fees.
Kealoha said she never agreed to pay off the reverse mortgage.
She said her uncle had agreed to pay $1,640 per month toward repayment of the reverse mortgage plus $1,337 per month for the maintenance fees and money he owed her. Her uncle did not have a job, but she said she believed his disability check was enough to cover the monthly maintenance fees and reverse mortgage.
Gerard Puana testified earlier that his monthly disability check is $2,036.
Kealoha said her uncle never paid any money toward the reverse mortgage and was late in paying the maintenance fees. Still she felt that everything was OK, even after one of her aunts learned about the reverse mortgage and condominium purchase. That was until she got a letter that her grandmother had mailed to Louis Kealoha at the Honolulu Police Department.
In the letter, the grandmother tells Katherine Kealoha that she is no longer her lawyer or representative on any matter. The grandmother also accuses Kealoha of lying to her about the reverse mortgage, asks for the title to the condominium and tells her granddaughter that she owes her $300,000.
Kealoha said her reaction to the letter was, "I was beyond angry, I was livid,"
read ... An Article Titled 'Chief's wife defends actions'
Visitors' spending is not keeping up with arrival numbers
SA: ..."All the economic indicators show that Hawaii's economy is on a normal growth path and that visitor arrivals will create a new record in 2015," said Eugene Tian, chief economist for the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Tian's forecast for 2015 assumes that the state's gross domestic product — the broadest measure of the state's economic activity —will rise 2.8 percent, and real personal income will grow 2.3 percent. He anticipates tourism will rise at least another 1.9 percent beyond the record-setting 8.3 million visitors who came to Hawaii in 2014. He also expects visitor spending to increase 1.4 percent over the record $14.7 billion in non-seasonally adjusted spending that was attained in 2014.
Paul Brewbaker, principal for TZ Economics, points out that this latest forecast, which anticipates that tourism will grow by 1 or 2 percent while the economy will grow by 3 percent, proves that tourism is continuing to shrink as a share of Hawaii's economy.
"It's growing, and we are all happy and the economy seems to be doing well, but it's not growing like it should given what we all know about the economy," he said. "I'm kind of worried."
Brewbaker said that Hawaii's real, or inflation-adjusted, visitor expenditures are not keeping up with visitor arrivals and that rising hotel room rates, partly due to capacity issues, have constrained spending outside of lodging....
read ... Worried
House Version of REIT Tax Dies
CB: Senate President Donna Mercado Kim is behind the Senate version of the measure, Senate Bill 118. Her proposal has been referred to the Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Sen. Jill Tokuda, who plans to schedule a hearing for the bill within the next month.
Meanwhile, lobbyists for real estate investment trusts have been working to convince lawmakers to discard it.
The National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts has hired lobbyists from Ashford & Wriston, a firm that also represents eBay, Walgreens and Shell Oil Company. Last year, NAREIT paid the company more than $14,000 in lobbying fees in a successful fight against a similar proposal.
The vast majority of testimony that lawmakers received Wednesday urged them to oppose the bill. It came from REITs such as General Growth Properties, which owns Ala Moana Shopping Center, and organizations such as the Land Use Research Foundation that warned of potential job loss and disinvestment in Hawaii.
The Department of Taxation submitted testimony that largely echoed that position and didn’t bother to estimate how much revenue the state could gain. But the Hawaii Government Employees Association, a union for government workers, argued that the state could be losing millions of dollars due to the tax loophole.
The only other person to testify in support of the bill was Michael Fergus, a local real estate investor, who said it’s unfair that real estate trusts get a tax break when numerous other companies must pay.
read ... Tax Hike to be Paid by Renters--Not Dead Yet
Ige's DLNR Nominee Oversaw Unregistered Lobbyist
ILind: The commission found that Arakawa had lobbied on behalf of LURF from 2008 through 2014, and for most of that time was not registered as a lobbyist. During three years falling within the applicable statute of limitations, Arakawa and LURF each failed to file nine expenditure reports disclosing what was spent, if anything, on lobbying.
Ching served as a director and officer of LURF through most or all of this period. As a registered lobbyist for Castle & Cooke, Ching should have been familiar with Ethics Commission requirements applicable to lobbying organizations and lobbyists. The organization’s failure to comply over a period of years certainly does not demonstrate Ching’s attention to such legal details, and could be another “distraction” as the Ige administration seeks to obtain the Senate’s backing for the nomination.
Click here to read the Ethics Commission’s findings, issued February 2, 2015.
read ... Questions
West Coast Port Lockout Drumbeat
The protectionist Jones Act vs. US economic freedom
TH: Congress should get rid of trade barriers that shield politically connected insiders from competition. A good start would be to do away with the Jones Act, one of the so-called "coastwise laws." As the Department of Homeland Security observes, "The coastwise laws are highly protectionist provisions that are intended to create a 'coastwise monopoly'...."
TF: If You Like Higher Prices, Enriched Cronies, And Weak National Security, Then You’ll Love The Jones Act
read ... Freedom
Right to Farm: Bill Passes to Prevent County Councils from Pandering to Anti-GMO Mobs
HNN: A bill to stop counties from enacting their own regulations on the farming industry advanced out of the House Agriculture Committee.
Several Hawaii counties have either banned or restricted the use of pesticides and genetically modified organisms.
But supporters of the bill say counties shouldn't have that authority. They say farmers on the islands are facing challenges to their right to farm and their long-term sustainability.
Tax-cheating anti-Superferry protester Kauai County Councilman Gary Hooser opposes the bill.... (So it must be good.)
read ... Make Hooser Irrelevant
HB1514: House Committee Panders to Anti-GMO Know-Nothings
HNN: ...the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association submitted written testimony, calling pesticide a tool in a farmer's toolbox.
"To add additional, and maybe not necessary, regulations like buffer zones and disclosures will really be adding additional cost to farming," HCIA executive director Bennette Misalucha said.
Most of the testifiers supporting the measure traveled to Oahu from Kauai, with a few from Maui and Molokai. Some of them said they believe the pesticides are making them sick.
"It's like my lungs are just liked stripped, like I don't have any skin on my lungs," one man said. (Relevant Factoid: Marijuana is a GMO.)
Misalucha said more pesticide regulations could spell the end for smaller farms.
"To have this additional regulation that would require all farmers to put in the paperwork would really be onerous and very difficult and challenging," she said.
The House Energy and Environmental Protection committee passed the pesticide bill with amendments, including calling for a 3/4 mile buffer zone around schools and hospitals.
read ... We are in charge of pandering, not the Councils
Will Anti-GMO Activists be Busted for Unregistered Lobbying?
KE: Now let's see the state Ethics Commission — and The Hawaii Independent, which helped to bust Arakawa — apply similar scrutiny to all the unregistered anti-GMO lobbyists, including Walter Ritte, Jeri DiPietro, Ashley Lukens and Kauai Councilman Gary Hooser.
Gary has been logging more hours at the Capitol than the Council Chambers, using his title, the cushion provided by his county salary and even county staff to push the agenda of the Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action group he heads. And it's clearly an anti-agriculture agenda, much as he and his cronies claim otherwise.
read ... Musings: Lobbing at Lobbyists
Ike Choy's Bill to Cut UH Programs Deferred in Face of Opposition
CB: Dozens of students and faculty members speak against the measure to eliminate smaller degree programs, and hundreds submit written testimony....
HB 555 would have eliminated UH undergraduate degree programs that have less than 10 graduates per year, except programs that are self-sustaining. Committee Chair Isaac Choy deferred the bill, even though he had proposed it.
An amended bill could re-emerge requiring UH to report data on graduation rates, but not requiring any programs to be eliminated....
read ... Choy Fails to Gut University to Support More Administrators Salaries
OCCC to be Replaced by New Prison at Halawa Site?
KITV: "The arguments we have heard to expand Halawa facility to include OCCC seem to make a lot of sense because there are lot of economies of scale to meet by having the facilities in a joint location," said Rep. Gregg Takayama, who is the House Public Safety chairman.
Common laundry, food service and medical facilities could reduce costs.
But there's also another bill that would put a new prison at the Animal Quarantine station near the entrance to Halawa Valley.
It is part of a three way land swap proposed by Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz.
read ... Prison Site?
HB438: Lets Waste Another $6M 'Without a Plan' on Kahoolawe
CB: Over a dozen lawmakers have signed onto a bill to give $6 million to the state agency in charge of restoring Kahoolawe. Two House committees plan to take up the proposal on Friday.
Background: Audit: Kahoolawe Money Gone After 18 years Without a Plan
read ... Good money after bad
Roz Baker: Small Businesses Should Follow Me into Bankruptcy
KHON: Many people who work on a holiday are compensated with more pay or an extra day off. But what if you got paid triple-time?
SB234 would make that a reality for those in the retail industry.
Before Sen. Roz Baker, D-South, West Maui, chair of the Senate commerce and consumer protection committee, became a lawmaker, she owned a store on the Valley Isle. (It went bankrupt due to Baker's inept financial skills so she naturally got elected to the Senate.)
“We did pay, on occasion, triple-time in order to have employees work for us if we wanted to be open on Thanksgiving,” she said.
Baker introduced a bill in the Legislature that would require all retail employers to do that–pay workers three times their regular wage on all state holidays.
read ... Bankrupt Like Me
Cop's ex-girlfriend speaks out about alleged abuse
HNN: "The last night of the abuse, the last event, I still believed, I still believed that (other officers) weren't going to believe me."
She says that last event, resulted in her going to the hospital. She had a black eye, bruises on her arms, and a head injury.
"The first thing I told the officers, you have to help me. And I know there's a really good chance you're not going to believe me."
But, she says, the responding officers did believe her. One officer, in particular, listened to her entire story.
"(He was) the epitome of what a police officer should be. He was fair, he had integrity, he was respectful. He made me feel like I was talking to a family member and I was so thankful."
Cappo was arrested that night last March. And last week, a grand jury indicted him for assault, theft and criminal property damage.
His gun has been taken away, and he has been on desk duty for almost a year now.
Cathy Betts, of the State Commission on the Status of Women says Cappo should have been fired, "The grand jury has already indicted and he's still on the job, still a police officer, still in charge of cases, it's unacceptable."
read ... More Domestic Abuse
Hawaii's largest oil refinery turning to other markets, including South America
PBN: Hawaii Independent Energy, the owner of the state's largest oil refinery, is turning to other markets to keep its business flowing after losing its fuel supply contract with Hawaiian Electric Co. and the impending use of liquefied natural gas for power generation in Hawaii.
Bill Haywood, the former CEO of Hawaii Independent Energy who is now a consultant, told PBN that the business of refining is constantly looking for places to sell its products.
"It really has to do with running a refinery at maximum utilization," he said. "That's the fly-wheel of success. Most things you buy, an [air-conditioner] all the way up to a factory, if you want it to run at max utilization." ...
Hawaii Gas, the state's only gas utility, which is a customer of Hawaii Independent Energy, told PBN this week that the Houston-based Par Petroleum-owned company is shipping oil to other markets, including South America....
Hawaii Gas also investing about $13 million in its recent expansion plan regarding liquefied natural gas, or LNG, which would replace up to 30 percent of its current supply fuel (ie further cut back HIE's local sales) and equate to a savings for its customers.
The Honolulu-based company told PBN this week that it is about a month away from getting bids from 30 of the world's largest natural gas companies to supply it with bulk shipments of LNG for a project that could cost up to $300 million to develop.
HNN: Fuel tank owner waited a month before reporting leak
read ... Half Way from Indonesia
Zoo nonprofit gives just 10 percent of its funds to Honolulu Zoo
HNN: Two former Honolulu Zoo directors said the nonprofit Honolulu Zoo Society is failing to help the zoo that's in dire need of financial assistance, just a year before it faces a crucial re-accreditation inspection. The society gives the zoo only about 10 percent of its annual budget in direct assistance....
"It appeared to me that it became an organization that was really there to satisfy its needs and not the needs of the zoo in general," said Manuel Mollinedo, who was Honolulu Zoo director for three and a half years and is now the parks director in Fresno, California.
"All they did was put programs on that would benefit their organization and not benefit the Honolulu Zoo," added Mollinedo, the former head of the San Francisco Zoo.
Jeff Wilkinson, who just resigned as Honolulu Zoo director in January, said, "If output is a measure of performance, the Honolulu Zoo Society wouldn't receive a passing grade on any scale. There is no accountability or leadership in that organization."...
Families that buy annual $45 or $55 passes may be surprised to find out that money does not go directly to zoo operations.
Instead, the Zoo Society collects and keeps the roughly $500,000 in membership dues every year.
In the last four years, the nonprofit has given the zoo a fraction of that back, an average of $157,000 in direct aid each year, according to figures released by the society. That's only ten percent of the nonprofit's operating budget of about $1.5 million a year....
The society spends the bulk of its money on salaries for 11 employees: six full-timers and five part timers....
Zoo employees have long said the AZA will be hard-pressed to re-accredit the zoo because of its lack of stable leadership in recent years, budget cuts, empty and broken exhibits and staffing shortages. Without AZA accreditation, Honolulu Zoo could lose some of its animals belonging to other AZA institutions and would not be able to get more creatures from AZA facilities in the future....
read ... Profitable Nonprofit
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