2015 Hawaii Legislative Watch: Taxes
Another House waiver of public notice—on an important energy bill
Schatz 3rd Most Absentee Senator
Hirono: ObamaCare Needs MORE Snow Days
449 Candidates File for Neighborhood Board Elections
Galuteria Owes $7,000 Back Taxes After Lying About Residence, Senate to Consider Action
CB: Hawaii Sen. Brickwood Galuteria owes the City and County of Honolulu more than $7,200 in property taxes and fees after improperly claiming a homeowners’ tax break on property in Palolo Valley for the past four years....
Galuteria came under scrutiny when Richard Baker, a campaign advisor to Galuteria’s general election challenger Chris Lethem, alleged that the senator didn’t actually live in Kakaako.
Baker filed a complaint with the city Elections Office on Nov. 2, contending the former Senate majority leader shouldn’t be allowed to vote in District 12, which includes parts of Waikiki, Ala Moana, Kakaako, McCully and Moiliili.
The complaint also raised the question of whether Galuteria should be allowed to represent his district, an issue that’s up to Senate leadership to decide.
Baker’s complaint further indicated that if Galuteria does live in Kakaako, he has been improperly receiving a homeowners’ tax break on rental property that he owns in Palolo Valley.
Galuteria has since acknowledged that he wrongly claimed an $80,000 homeowners’ tax exemption on a rental property in Palolo for several years....
Senate President Donna Mercado Kim received an official complaint questioning whether Galuteria lives in Kakaako, but is still determining what course of action to take. Kim plans to discuss the issue with other Senate leaders this week....
PDF: City Clerk Letter Re: Galuteria
read ... $7,000
Iwase the Fearless will Lead us to the NextEra
CB: Baker asked him about what she considered to be the most important undertaking the PUC will face in the near-future — NextEra Energy’s offer to buy Hawaiian Electric Industries for $4.3 billion, a merger that could reshape the electric utility landscape in Hawaii.
For starters, Iwase said that even though he isn’t legally required to, he’s inclined to hold public hearings about the deal on not just the four main Hawaiian Islands but also Lanai and Molokai. (Translation: He will jump thru all the hoops and then push the merger through.)
That may be reassuring to hear for some lawmakers. There’s a bill moving forward this session that would require the PUC to ensure the evaluation process is handled with the public interest in mind. House Bill 619, introduced by Rep. Chris Lee, is set to be heard Wednesday afternoon by the Consumer Protection Committee.
Iwase recognized that the PUC’s determination on the merger, which he expects will take a year to 18 months, will be a “historic decision.” He said the decision will ripple out and affect jobs, the economy, even retirees depending on their stock shares and dividends from Hawaiian Electric.
In the meantime, Iwase said he’s been hiring researchers and others to get the PUC staffed up to be ready for the NextEra case and other pending dockets, such as liquefied natural gas.
Iwase has no doubt there will be a contested case hearing on the merger and acquisition. His hope is that there will be intervenors from various stakeholders, including Native Hawaiian interests, environmental, solar industry and independent power producers.
“The standard we’re going to be applying is fitness and public interest,” he said.
IM: Iwase Senate committee confirmation as merger intervention window winds down
CB: Big Island Electric Co-op Seeks to Intervene in NextEra Sale
read ... Fearless
Eight Industrial-Sized Solar Farms in the Works
CB: If PUC gives its approval, a total of 1,400 acres of panels could spring up, mostly in central Oahu....At peak production, during the middle of the day when the sun is strongest, the panels are expected to supply more than one-eighth of Oahu’s electricity needs, according to HECO....
A project in Waianae, Ka La Nui Solar, would be developed by NextEra Energy, a Florida-based company which recently announced it was purchasing HECO in a deal that still has to gain numerous regulatory approvals.
NextEra has leased 156 acres from Mountain View Dairy and expects the footprint of its 15-megawatt solar farm, comprised of 60,700 solar panels, to span 70 to 90 acres, according to its application with the PUC.
The project has received approval from the Waianae Neighborhood Board.
CB: New Solar Projects Projected to Increase Oahu Electricity Bills
Meanwhile: HEI 'Solution'--Remotely Shut off Your Solar Panels
read ... Industrial Sized
Land Swap? State has not always been best land steward
SA: There is a caveat, of course: The state has not always been the best steward of its lands, and state control of this acreage must come with enough oversight to prevent unauthorized uses. Responsibility for that should fall to the state Agribusiness Development Corp.
read ... Not the best
Lawmakers say Ching's DLNR confirmation is not in trouble for now
HNN: More than 7,000 people have signed a petition asking the governor to withdraw Ching's nomination as chair of the DLNR, a department which oversees more than 1.3 million acres of state land and beaches and over 750 miles of Hawaii's coastlines....
"If you look at his resume it's just a blueprint for development. So the fear is you'd have the fox guarding the hen house," said David Henkin, staff attorney for EarthJustice.
Added Henry Curtis, executive director of the Life of the Land:
"We really want someone with a passion and the drive to protect the environment and to protect cultural and natural resources." he said....
"It's a concern for me that the administration is willing to remove people without identifying their replacements or without ever having provided justification," said Marti Townsend, executive director of the Outdoor Circle.
Lawmakers say that Ching's confirmation is not in trouble for now. His confirmation hearing is scheduled in mid March.
CB: By not being transparent about his pick to head the DLNR, Gov. David Ige is expending precious political capital.
read ... Opposition to DLNR nominee mounts
Neighborhood boards promote civic engagement
SA: The powers, duties and functions of neighborhood boards include:
» Assuring effective citizen participation in the decisions of government by providing opportunities to communicate input to the appropriate persons and agencies.
» Initiating, reviewing and making recommendations concerning any Oahu General Plan, Sustainable Communities Plan, zoning change and other land use issues within the city.
» Identifying, prioritizing and making recommendations concerning any government capital improvements.
» Assisting with evaluations of the efficiency and effectiveness of government services and programs.
» Encouraging understanding of the decision-making processes of government.
» Promoting neighborhood boards as public forums on community and governmental issues.
Each neighborhood board typically has 10 to 15 elected members. This year, candidates must file to run by Feb. 20 for a two-year term. Residents who registered to vote in the 2014 general election are automatically eligible to vote in their 2015 neighborhood board elections.
Those who didn't registered for the general election can register for the neighborhood board elections by submitting a Voter Registration Form to the Neighborhood Commission Office. Voting will take place online from April 24 to May 15; see more at www.honolulu.gov/nco or call the Neighborhood Commission Office at 768-3717.
read ... Neighborhood Board
Rent High Enough? SB118 Will Tax REIT Landlords
CB: Senate President Donna Mercado Kim introduced Senate Bill 118, which is scheduled to be heard by Sen. Jill Tokuda’s committee at 9 a.m. in Room 211....
House lawmakers discarded a companion measure earlier this month, so it’s up to the Senate whether or not the bill progresses this year.
read ... REIT Tax
Pinata Party: Usual Suspects Grab for Tobacco Tax Revenues
HNN: Since 2005, the Hawaii Tobacco QuitLine has helped 22,000 people stop smoking. Counselors field 400 calls a month from others wanting help. But the money that pays for the QuitLine and other cessation programs has dropped dramatically.
"We have to fight every year to keep those dollars," Department of Health director Virginia Pressler said.
Hawaii gets about $50 million a year in settlement funds. The Department of Health used to get 25 percent of that. It's down to 15 percent. And the Tobacco Trust Fund percentage also plummeted from 25 percent to 6.5 percent. In past years lawmakers have used tobacco settlement money to balance the budget and to fund other things. Anti-smoking advocates hope that doesn't happen this year....
"Unlike traditional tobacco products, there's no federal restriction that would protect children from obtaining electronic smoking devices," said Jessica Yamauchi of the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii.
The Health Department used a press conference Tuesday to celebrate victories in the fight against tobacco, and to remind lawmakers that every dollar taken from that fight may prove costly.
"People don't seem to fully appreciate the importance of prevention and the fact that we have to invest in prevention day after day after day," Pressler said.
read ... Gimme the Money
Cigarette Taxes Triple, Poor Hit Hardest--$500M to General Fund
KITV: During the past 15 years, taxes on cigarettes have nearly tripled while the average cost of smokes more than doubled to $9.37 per pack.
Yet, Hawaii's poorest residents are still one of the largest group of smokers behind those with mental or substance abuse issues.
Since the settlement started, legislators have diverted more than $500 million to the state's general budget and rainy day fund.
During the past 15 years, taxes on cigarettes have nearly tripled while the average cost of smokes more than doubled to $9.37 per pack.
Yet, Hawaii's poorest residents are still one of the largest group of smokers behind those with mental or substance abuse issues....
The Department of Health and the Tobacco Trust Fund will see a $3 million reduction in annual settlement funds in 2018. But those groups are more concerned lawmakers will tap into the nearly $11 million currently available for prevention programs this year.
read ... Triple Taxes on Poor
DoE Wants $1.7M Lunch Price Hike
KITV: Right now it will cost you a dollar for breakfast, and $2.25 for lunch if you’re an elementary or middle school student.
High school students pay $1.10 and $2.50.
The Department of Education is asking for an increase of 10 cents more for breakfast and 25 cents for lunch not just for next year, but for the next three years.
KHON: The Department of Education says the changes would bring in an extra $1.7 million per year
LINK: Download an Excel chart of the proposed school meal prices.
read ... Out to Lunch
Senate Committee Approves 11 Nominees to Hawaii’s Development Authority
CB: The state Senate Committee on Housing and Human Services approved former city planning director John Whalen and 10 others to sit on three boards at the state development agency that manages land in Heeia, Kalaeloa and Kakaako.
Lawmakers voted last year to revamp the makeup of the Hawaii Community Development Authority boards after Kakaako residents protested decisions to greenlight several luxury high-rise towers.
This year, Gov. David Ige had to pick his HCDA appointments from a pool of nominees selected by city and state lawmakers.
Background: Ige Announces HCDA Nominations
read ... HCDA 11
The New Standard for Transparency: Open Checkbook
ILind: Take a look at the official website of the Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel, and you’ll be invited to check out OhioCheckbook.com, the state’s searchable, online checkbook detailing all of the state’s spending.
And Mandel is now urging all local governments in the state to follow suit and open their checkbooks to public scrutiny (“Ohio Cities, Counties Urged to Put Checkbook Online“)....
Then check out OpenGov.com, which seems to be landing lots of contracts to provide transparency for local governments.
Hawaii needs to catch up.
read ... Open Checkbook
Is State Ethics Commission looking to backpedal on “goodwill lobbying”?
ILind: One of the items on the agenda for today’s meeting of the State Ethics Commission is a report by Executive Director Les Kondo, which includes a list of “Projects Under Consideration.”
The first item: Reconsidering whether “lobbying,” as defined in HRS section 97-1(7) includes “goodwill” or relationship-building lobbying.
There’s no indication of what the proposed “reconsideration” involves, but if it means that the intent is to reinterpret the law to exclude “goodwill lobbying,” that would be a real setback.
The commission’s current position is spelled out in a December 6, 2007 memo by then-executive director Dan Mollway....
read ... Is State Ethics Commission looking to backpedal on “goodwill lobbying”?
Big Island group exploring public energy co-op
WHT: What if Hawaii Island residents owned their own electric utility?
That’s the question being posed by a nonprofit group that filed on Feb. 11 a motion with the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission to intervene in the pending $4.3 billion sale of Hawaii Electric Light Co’s parent company, Hawaiian Electric Co. (HEI), to NextEra Energy.
The Hawaii Island Energy Cooperative is a group of Big Island community and business leaders exploring the idea of public ownership, according to group spokesman and director Marco Mangelsdorf.
“We seek to participate in the discussion of the unique perspective of the residents of our island, and, if appropriate, explore an option that would make for a fundamental change in the landscape of energy production and consumption on Hawaii Island,” he said via a press release. “Being able to have more direct control over Hawaii Island’s present and future energy profile would provide us with an extraordinary opportunity to showcase what can be done on our island on many different and innovative levels.”
Mangelsdorf said Tuesday that public ownership of the island’s electric service would mean that there would be democratic and local control over the island’s energy infrastructure, “providing greater benefits and retaining any excess over the cost of operations.”
The energy cooperative is headed by a local board of directors, including Hamakua Springs president Richard Ha, former University of Hawaii at Hilo spokesman Gerald DeMello, Office of Mauna Kea Management senior adviser Wallace Ishibashi, and Mangelsdorf, who is president of ProVision Solar Inc.
The group came together shortly after the announcement that Florida-based NextEra intended to purchase HEI, said Ha.
read ... Co-Op
Committees Send Marijuana Dispensary Bill on to Full House
CB: House Bill 321 would establish dispensary systems and production centers across the state. If the bill passes through the rest of the legislative process, production centers could receive licenses starting in July 2016, and dispensaries could become licensed in January 2017. There would be approximately one dispensary for 500 patients, which the Department of Health will review every year. The Department of Health would give licenses to 26 dispensaries and 30 production centers.
Businesses would have to pay an initial $20,000 fee to the DOH to become a licensed dispensary, and another $30,000 every year after that to renew their licenses....
Another amendment would require medical marijuana products to display their equivalent dry weight on the labeling (so they can buy as much as possible). 'Patients' would be able to obtain four ounces every 15 days so they will have plenty to re-sell to kids.
read .... Dope Everywhere
GMOs: Rhetorical Excess to Fan the Flames of Divisiveness
KE: ...We're seeing a similar sort of divisiveness — and rhetoric — as activists tap into those same “vast outrage reserves” to fuel a fight over agriculture. But only the “industrial” kind, by which is apparently meant any farm that is larger than a few acres, employs technology and/or incorporates genetically modified crops, pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizer.
This fight is playing out locally, causing some Kauai folks to reject out of hand a dairy that wants to reduce milk imports by using a rotational pasture system that also reduces the need for imported feed.
It's caused people to go absolutely ape-shit over the seed fields, classifying every acre under production as a toxic waste site where heinous experiments are taking place.
It's caused a serious rift between commercial farmers, who know the economic and practical challenges of growing food in Hawaii, and some citizens, who adhere to an idealistic, simplistic food ideology that often doesn't translate well into reality.
And it's prompted opportunistic politicians to use rhetorical excess to fan the flames of divisiveness and further confuse voters while feeding their own giant egos.
Meanwhile, as folks put incredible amounts of energy into fighting this largely symbolic battle in Hawaii, agricultural land is steadily being developed, food imports keep increasing, irrigation systems are falling into disrepair, good land lies fallow and farmer morale is plunging.
Turning “industrial” ag into a symbol of all that is wrong with the food supply hasn't actually stopped, or even slowed, its production anywhere in the world. People are still consuming it in vast quantities, just like we're consuming vast amounts of oil. Yeah, some folks have switched to GMO-free or organic, just like some have converted to solar energy.
But overall, nothing has really changed because of these fights. The bigger, deeper, underlying questions and issues remain unanswered, unaddressed, while folks scrap over symbols.
read ... Musings: Step Forward
Label: Senate Continues Pandering to Anti-GMO Nuts
CB: The state Senate committees on Health and Agriculture will take testimony Thursday on a bill calling for the labeling of food with genetically modified organisms.
“The people of Hawaii have a right to know what’s in the food they eat,” said Health Committee Chairman Josh Green in a statement. “If the people want to know if there are GMOs in their food, then the Legislature should follow their will and pass a simple and effective labeling system.”
Senate Bill 131 would establish labeling requirements for any food or raw agricultural commodity sold in Hawaii that “contains, or was produced with, a genetically engineered material,” according to Green’s office.
Clues for the Clueless: Warning labels are for health hazards. GMOs are not a health hazard. Therefore no label is warranted.
read ... Label Luddites
Legislators Pander to Animal Liberationists, Consider Bill to Ban Zoos, Circuses
CB: ... state lawmakers are considering a bill that would prohibit the display or performance of a wild or exotic animal for commercial purposes.
Dozens of people, animal-rights groups, circuses and even cattlemen are trying to influence Wednesday’s decision on the legislation by the House Consumer Protection Committee, chaired by Rep. Angus McKelvey.
“The bill is just a step down a slippery slope,” rancher Alan Gottlieb wrote. “Today circuses and fairs and tomorrow zoos and aquariums?”
Hawaii Humane Society President Pamela Burns says the bill doesn’t go far enough. The nonprofit is OK with exemptions for accredited zoos but wants the committee to remove an exception for animals that have been in the state for more than 300 days prior to the display or performance.
The Honolulu Zoo, which is accredited now, is worried about what would happen if it ever lost its accreditation. And there are concerns that the Panaewa Hilo in Hilo, which is not accredited, would not be able to display any new animals.
Check out all the testimony on House Bill 1012 here. Track the legislation’s progress here.
read ... If its crazy, the Legislature has got time
Aquarium Collector Gets Suspended Sentence for Defending Himself Against Anti-Aquarium Obsessive
WHT: An Ocean View man who has become the poster child for the debate over the harvest of aquarium fish pleaded no contest Tuesday to tearing the regulator from the mouth of Maui reef activist Rene Umberger in West Hawaii waters last May.
Jay Lovell, an aquarium fisherman of 30 years, received a deferred six-month prison sentence on the charge of second-degree terroristic threatening. He must also obtain an anger management assessment, per the terms of a plea agreement forged between the prosecutors and Lovell’s defense attorney. The trial had been scheduled to play out this week.
If Lovell stays out of trouble for one year, he will not have to serve the time and the incident can be expunged from his record.
Umberger took the stand briefly to ask that Lovell’s fishing license be suspended during the deferment period, but 3rd Circuit Court Chief Judge Ronald Ibarra told her the court must abide by the terms of the plea agreement.
WHT: Hawaii County Council aquarium bill still afloat after hours of testimony
read ... Self-Defense
Obama making WWII internment camp in Hawaii a national monument
LAT: On Thursday, President Obama will designate the plot of land in western Oahu that was the site of the Honouliuli camp as a national monument, White House officials told the Los Angeles Times. The designation is intended to bring greater awareness to it and to Hawaii's distinct role in the World War II-era incarceration of Japanese Americans and what the White House calls "the fragility of civil rights during times of conflict."
The announcement will come 73 years to the day after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the executive order paving the way for the internment of Japanese Americans, a few months after Japan bombed Hawaii's Pearl Harbor and drew the U.S. into the war.
(But it won't mention the role that Jack Burns played in determining who would be interned.)
SA: Among those interned at Honouliuli was Sanji Abe, a Japanese-American who served in the territorial Legislature.
read ... the LA Times
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