Hawaii Noted for 'Anti-Innovation Policy Choices'
Mark Takai: 100 Days of Nothingness
Some States Pay Doctors More to Treat Medicaid Patients
Mayor's Election Payback
Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted April 20, 2015
NOAA: Hawaii Humpbacks 'Not at Risk'
Ige DLIR Nominee Involved in Post-Iniki Insurance Fraud?
CC: Carroll talks about possible problems with another one of Governor Ige's nominees, Linda Chu Takayama, to head the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. She is currently Director of Economic Development for the City and County of Honolulu, but during the aftermath of Hurricane Iniki she was the State of Hawaii Insurance Commissioner (1991-1994). There are a number of questions regarding her past association with insurance settlements and liquidations after Hurricane Iniki when she was put in charge of overseeing the process, and later became a partner in the law firm that completed the deal.
Her ex-law partner, Jerrold Chun, was involved with, and convicted of, shady dealings involving the liquidation. Takayama may or may not have been involved in the illegal part of the deal, but as Chun's partner in the law firm managing the final portion of the settlement, she should have known what was going on. Carroll reads news stories published in 2003 and 2004 regarding Chun's, and possibly Takayama's, involvement in insurance company liquidations. According to the stories, Chun was convicted and served 10 years for "stealing" money from the insurance companies. He called the money a "success" bonus. Takayama denied any involvement with Chun's problems. The big question is, was she a beneficiary of money received from the liquidation after assigning the business to Chun's firm when she was Insurance Commissioner, then petitioning the courts to appoint her to oversee the liquidation as "deputy liquidator", and then later becoming a law partner with Chun. In a Honolulu Advertiser story published in 2003, one state senator and a former Insurance Commissioner noted there were "serious questions" about her role in the process even though she denied any knowledge of the alleged fraud.
Here are links to some of the news stories:
read ... Carroll Cox Show
Tax hike that victimizes Small Business, Professionals to expire
SA: The income tax issue dates back to 2009, when state tax revenues plummeted at the bottom of the Great Recession. To help balance the budget, Hawaii lawmakers increased the state's top income tax rates for Hawaii's highest-income residents.
Then-Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed that tax increase, but lawmakers overrode the Republican governor's veto.
That 2009 law increased the state's top income tax rates for the state's highest-income families and individuals in a series of steps. For example, married taxpayers filing jointly with incomes between $300,000 and $350,000 saw their maximum tax rate increased to 9 percent from 8.25 percent.
For the wealthiest joint filers, making more than $400,000, the income tax rate was increased to 11 percent from 8.25 percent. Income tax rates were left unchanged for lower-income taxpayers.
However, lawmakers in 2009 set an expiration date for those new, higher rates for the wealthiest taxpayers, and time is now running out for the higher tax rates. The law specified the increased rates would drop back down to the original level of no more than 8.25 percent for all taxpayers at the end of 2015.
When that happens, it will reduce the amount the state collects in income taxes, trimming $36 million from the projected collections for the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2016, according to a spokeswoman for the state Department of Taxation.
Meanwhile, a separate cap on itemized deductions that was imposed by state lawmakers in 2011 will also expire, which would provide another benefit to upper-income taxpayers. Lifting that cap will allow upper-income filers to further reduce their tax bills by claiming more in deductions, but the Tax Department spokeswoman said an estimate of the amount of tax revenue the state will lose as a result of that change was not immediately available....
read ... Tax Cut?
High costs keeping isle homes crammed
SA: An increase in housing prices and rents has made it more difficult for young adults to make a break from their families and live on their own in Hawaii.
Hawaii is No. 1 among the states for the most multigenerational families living under the same roof, according to U.S. Census Bureau data compiled by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
About 11.6 percent, or 36,203 households, are multigenerational, DBEDT said. That's twice as much as the U.S. average of 5.7 percent. California is second at 8.2 percent, followed by Washington, D.C., at 7.8 percent.
"The reason is the high cost of rent," said Rowena "Nani" Manubag, who lives in a four-bedroom Ewa Beach house with 15 family members, including her mother, sister, husband, children and grandchildren.
"It's so high for them to go out and find a place," Manubag, 52, said of her three children. "The downside, if you live on your own: You don't have that support."
The high cost of housing limits homeownership, especially for the younger generation, said state economist Eugene Tian. Hawaii's homeownership rate was among the bottom four nationwide at 57.7 percent compared with the U.S. average of 65.1 percent, according to DBEDT.
In addition to economic reasons, Asians and Pacific islanders, who make up a majority of the population in Hawaii, have a cultural tradition of living with their extended family.
read ... Cost of living
HMSA rule tightens control over MDs
SA: A doctor's primary professional obligation is to his or her patients, not to the patients' insurance companies. It's one thing for an insurer to encourage doctors to refer patients to other physicians in its network as a way to control costs, but quite another for it to require those doctors to emphasize financial concerns.
The Hawaii Medical Service Association, the largest health insurer in the state, seems to have crossed that line with a new contract it has imposed on its participating physicians, doctors who accept HMSA's determination of eligible charges as full payment for medical services rendered and who have little choice but to accede to HMSA's demands given the nonprofit's dominance in the Hawaii market.
The Hawaii Medical Association, a professional organization that advocates on behalf of its 1,100 physician-members statewide, is correct to push back against HMSA's intrusion on the doctor-patient relationship. The insurer should revise its latest contract in consideration of the doctors' legitimate concerns; there are roughly 2,800 doctors in the HMSA network.
At issue is a new contractual clause that urges physicians to refer patients covered by HMSA insurance to other HMSA-participating doctors if those patients need specialized care, and, more onerously, requires doctors who refer patients to non-participating physicians to warn those patients that they may face higher out-of-pocket expenses as a result.
read ... Controlling
Mauna Kea Telescopes: The Business of Astronomy Is Not an Easy One
CB: Exciting discoveries in astronomy are made on the Big Island but observatory directors say there's no financial profit for institutions.
read ... Astronomy
Anti-Pesticide Activists Silent About 100 acres of Herbicide at Princeville
KE: I keep waiting for HAPA, which has weighed in on the Mauna Kea telescope and other issues, to say something about the culture-appropriating Princeville project, and its recent application of herbicides — do you suppose they were manufactured by Syngenta? — to 100 acres on the Prince Course greens.
So far, HAPA has been silent. I guess it would be a bit hypocritical for HAPA communications director Elif Beall to say anything when her husband is selling real estate to the same exclusive crowd.
Which brings us back to the question we've always had about Hooser, HAPA and the rest of the anti-GMO crowd: why have they targeted only agricultural companies, which just so happen to be occupying those oh-so-desirable and still undeveloped lands on the westside?
read ... Musings: Rising Tides of Insanity
Lawsuit alleges PGV owner Ormat Industries defrauded federal government
WHT: The owner of Puna Geothermal Venture has two weeks remaining to file an answer to a complaint alleging it defrauded the federal government of $13.8 million in stimulus funds to cover an expansion at the plant.
read ... Fraud
Poll: Strong Support for Medical Marijuana Dispensaries
CB: Voters want medi-pot patients to have places to buy their medicine, but still oppose legalization of the drug for recreational purposes.
read ... Keep the masses dopey
Honolulu PR Maven Needs Kenoi
CB: Good political leaders are hard to find. Inspirational political leaders are an even rarer breed.
CB: Complete the Prescription for Medical Marijuana
read ... He can keep the masses mesmerized
Land Use Shenanigans on the Windward Side
CB: A bureaucrat rewrote the Koolauloa Sustainable Communities Plan, but then the zoning committee rode to the rescue — for a while, anyway.
read ... Land Use
Panel OKs Mizumoto, Cox and Minn for seats on state Board of Education
SA: Gov. David Ige's three nominees to the state Board of Education sailed through a Senate Education Committee hearing Friday.
The governor nominated Lance Mizumoto, president and chief banking officer of Central Pacific Bank; longtime Kauai educator Margaret Cox; and former teacher Hubert Minn to three-year terms on the school board.
Dozens of supporters wrote testimony in support of the nominees.
With first lady Dawn Amano-Ige, a former public school teacher and vice principal, in the audience, the Senate Education Committee unanimously voted to recommend the nominations for confirmation by the full Senate.
read ... Board of Education
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