Politicians Paid so Navatek Can get $20M Play?
Desperate to Push GE Tax Hike Thru, HART Pretends Property Tax Hike is Only Alternative
Hazardous Waste: DHHL Sues Evicted Racetrack Operator
Hawaii Republican Convention Set for May 2
Homelessness Began With Decision to Close Insane Asylums
MW: ...We advertise ourselves as a paradise, but visiting honeymooners emerge from their $250-per-night hotel and put down their mats to find themselves sunning beside a sleeping homeless man.
How has this come to pass? Many are the ways.
The late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Ph.D. in sociology and three-term U.S. senator, blames a generation of well-meaning liberals like himself and his hero, President John F. Kennedy. JFK signed the “Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act of 1963.”
It would clean out the asylums that had warehoused the mentally ill and impaired in the 19th century. With new wonder drugs and support from 2,000 community centers to be built across the country, the mentally ill would be enabled to make a life.
But only 482 of the promised 2,000 community centers were built by 1980, and in that year President Ronald Reagan announced that “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
So the mentally ill, vials of prescription drugs clutched in their hands, went free into the world. There, in Moynihan’s words, “They might sleep in doorways as often as they chose. The problem of the homeless appeared, characteristically defined as persons who lacked ‘affordable housing.’”
Three decades after passage of the mental health reform legislation, Sen. Moynihan would describe it as “absolutely catastrophic, a tribute to ignorance and all that is wrong, and it would never have happened if we hadn’t set out to improve things.”....
Mental Health: Can Reform Solve Hawaii’s Homeless, Prison and Unfunded Liability Problems?
read ... Gimme Shelter — Or Better, A Home
Rail Tax Hike Twists in Wind -- TGIF?
CB: State lawmakers can't agree on how best to help the city shore up an (alleged) $910 million shortfall using General Excise Tax dollars, and they only have until Friday to figure it out....
The House side wants the surcharge to be cut in half to 0.25 percent and extended for 25 years starting in 2018. Senators say they want the current 0.5 percent surcharge to be extended for five years beyond its 2022 sunset.
Both sides have tried to entice the other with incentives, including having counties take over so-called “roads in limbo.” The House proposal that came out Wednesday included that provision as well as another, unique option to give the state “air rights” above the rail system.
State Rep. Sylvia Luke, who heads the House Finance Committee, said the House members were concerned about advertising above the rail line and would want the state to have control over that space.
But Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell has said in the past that he wanted the “air rights” for the city to help shore up the project deficit.
During a December press conference, Caldwell said he wanted to take advantage of public-private partnerships with developers to see if they could use the space above it for parking, commercial or residential purposes.
read ... TGIF?
Star-Adv: Kill $20M Pay to Play Tax Credit Bill
SA: Lawmakers should kill a sweeter tax credit brewing for certain maritime tenants on the Honolulu waterfront.
The proposed expansion of the tax credit could cost the state upwards of $20 million in lost tax revenue and comes only a year after the original break was enacted, raising questions about whether proponents were forthright about what they really wanted when they lobbied successfully for passage last year.
The special credit to finance the relocation of businesses that will be displaced by construction of a new Kapalama Container Terminal at Honolulu Harbor was defensible then because it was quite limited in its application.
The proposed updates that proponents such as Pacific Shipyards International describe as "technical tweaking" of the original measure actually are substantive. They could significantly increase the size of the credit available and the type of expenses that would qualify for it, depending on how legislative negotiations proceed in Friday's conference committee over House Bill 1167 and Senate Bill 676.
Related: 77 Politicians Paid so Navatek Can get $20M Play?
read ... Kill This Tax Credit Bill
Randy Perriera's Shortsightedness Drives Big Island Hospital to Seek Private Partnership
WHT: The bill is specific to Maui but has broad implications for the rest of the state as facilities like Kona Community Hospital make it clear they would like to pursue similar ventures....
The push for partnerships is not likely to stop with Maui’s three hospitals, although other interested hospitals will have to wait for legislation enabling them to enter partnership discussions as this year’s attempt — House Bill 1112 — fails to move forward.
Kona Community Hospital, also within the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, is faced with labor and benefits costs that approach 80 percent of net revenue, and administrators don’t feel the state’s current health care model to be sustainable. As hospitals get yearly life support from emergency state appropriations, Green has said he would be pleased to see a partnership for KCH with The Queen’s Medical Center, similar to the merger between Queen’s and North Hawaii Community Hospital in December 2013.
KCH’s projected net revenue for fiscal 2015 is $69 million, up from $65 million the year before. With some $11.6 million in efficiencies identified by the consultant Huron Healthcare last year, the hospital was set to break even in 2015, said CEO Jay Kreuzer. Instead, the facility is expected to be in the red $5.5 million from negotiated salary increases that were not funded by the Legislature, plus a new requirement to fund retiree health benefits. (Yup. It is the HGEA's own negotiators who are pushing HHSC out of the HGEA.)
“That threw a monkey wrench into the budget,” Kreuzer said. “We’re still working with the state, but their budget is limited too. It’s a concern.”
Maui’s green light to move ahead with a public-private partnership is good news, Kreuzer said.
‘We’re really excited about it,” he said. “A public-private partnership is very important to our future.”
read ... Randy Perriera Shortsightedness
We’re broke, they’re loaded
MN: As Maui waits to see what becomes of its hospital, Maui Memorial Medical Center, it is hard not to wonder about the disconnect between our real world and the business of medicine.
While the Legislature and the governor wrangle over ways for Maui Memorial to attract a private partner and close a $28 million budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year, things are a bit rosier for medical companies on the financial pages.
Take, for example, Tuesday's Wall Street Journal. There you could find a story where two drug companies, Pfizer and Merck, are bemoaning the fact that despite recent acquisitions, it is hard to impress investors because they are already so big. Merck acquired a company that makes antibiotics for $8.4 billion while Pfizer bought a generic drug company for $16 billion.
Lesson: Public Ownership Destroys Wealth, Private Ownership Creates Wealth
HHSC Wealth Destruction Flashback: Hawaii Hospitals: Not Quite Catching Up To Africa
read ... Loaded
HB1140: Cesspool Tax Credit in Conference
CB: House Bill 1140, which was introduced by Rep. Nicole Lowen, would give home owners up to a $10,000 tax credit to convert cesspools to a septic system, an aerobic treatment unit system or to connect to a sewer system. The bill is scheduled for a conference committee hearing on Friday at 11 a.m.
Senate Bill 1272, a companion bill to HB 1140, would have also given taxpayers a credit to upgrade their cesspool systems. However, the bill died in the Senate Ways and Means Committee because of its projected $45 million cost.
Under HB 1140, homeowners who ask for financial assistance to upgrade their cesspools and who live close to a waterway would be given priority to help the state cut costs.
read ... Cesspool
Gay Sex Education before BoE Again
CB: “I think one unwanted pregnancy is one too many, and one sexually transmitted disease is one too many,” said state Rep. Bob McDermott, who led the drive against Pono Choices and is staunchly against the proposed BOE policy change. “The problem with these courses, with comprehensive sex ed, is they encourage sexual activity, they don’t discourage it.”
read ... Gay Sex Ed
Bills on Drug overdoses, closed-door meetings Approved by Legislators
SA: ... lawmakers gave final approval this week to a number of bills dealing with everything from drug overdoses to closed-door meetings for trustees of the public employees' retirement fund:
Senate Bill 982 would offer limited legal immunity for people who seek medical assistance for victims of drug or alcohol overdoses has won the approval of House and Senate lawmakers.
Lawmakers also agreed to SB148 that would add gambling to the illegal activities covered under "nuisance abatement" laws, a change that would allow citizen lawsuits to be filed against owners who repeatedly allow illegal gambling activities to take place on their properties.
The House and Senate also approved SB1208 to allow the public worker public pension fund to hold closed-door meetings to consider confidential information related to investments, and to consider some procurement issues.
Lawmakers also approved SB 550, which bans the possession or sale of powdered alcohol products. The bill would make possession or sale of powdered alcohol a misdemeanor offense punishable by up to six months in jail.
read ... Deadline looms
On The Move in the Last Days of the Legislative Session
Turnabout: Dobelle forced to Pay University After Being Fired
SA: Former Westfield State University and University of Hawaii President Evan Dobelle has agreed to pay $185,000 to settle a state investigation into his spending of the Massachusetts school's funds.
The proposed settlement was filed Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court and must be approved by a judge.
The state attorney general's office sued Dobelle to recover nearly $100,000 in public funds it alleged was misspent by Dobelle on travel, restaurant meals and other services....
The settlement calls for Dobelle to pay $185,000 in damages, legal fees and costs for the state investigation. He also agreed to drop his lawsuit against Westfield State and to not work or volunteer at any higher education institution in Massachusetts....
(See what happens if you stand up to these clowns?)
read ... Lesson for UH
Looking for a Great Read? Try Auditor’s Annual Report
CB: One involves that familiar mark of government mess-ups, the Superferry. According to the 2014 report, that disaster continues to haunt us. During the ferry’s heyday, the state spent $30 million to $60 million of taxpayers’ money to build four barges specifically for the ferry. The Department of Transportation was supposed to sell them in 2009. No such luck. Instead, the barges are rotting away unmaintained in Honolulu Harbor.
Another story involved the Hawaii Teachers Standards Board. You may never have heard of this agency, but it’s no trouble getting the drift.
First of all, the board got into a dispute with its IT contractor, which totally stopped the new and critical licensing process. Then, as one board member put it, before the dispute was settled the contractor “just vanished.” Unfortunately, the board members had no idea that that this had happened. They thought the dispute had been settled when in fact nothing at all was really going on and the new licensing standards remained in limbo.
Both of these stories are real corkers, the kinds of examples that make people say, “What do you expect? It’s the state of Hawaii.”
There are other corkers, but they are not as obvious because of the way the Auditor’s Office presents its information. That is where reader imagination and translation has to come into play
The Department of Hawaiian Homelands, especially its leasing process, is one. The Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts is another. See for yourself. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry.
Let’s take a look at a third, the Department of Transportation, to see how much clearer the problem is once it is described in everyday language and form....
PDF: Annual Report
read ... A Great Read
KIUC Pushes Back Against Pushy Solar Salesmen
EC: “We’re trying to educate members so they don’t buy or lease a larger rooftop solar system than they need,” said David Bissell, CEO of Kauai Island Electric Cooperative in Lihue, Hawaii.
“We have seen systems going online that are many times larger than the customer’s demand. This simply is not sustainable on our system with our high penetration,” Bissell told an April 28 panel at the Solar Electric Power Association’s Utility Solar Conference in San Diego.
The co-op’s “Right-size, Not Oversize” campaign recommends that members consider 10-panel systems, producing about 2.5 kilowatts of power, adequate for offsetting daytime electric use. Solar water heaters are also a less expensive alternative to help prevent interconnected solar panels from sending too much power to the island’s grid.
read ... Push Back Against Scammers
Geothermal Developer Denies Fraud in Response to Whistleblower Lawsuit
CB: The owner of Hawaii's sole geothermal power plant tells a federal court in Nevada that it committed no fraud to land $130 million in federal grants.
read ... Denies
New Yorker Appointed to UH BoR
BD: Standing O is sending out a long-distance O to Helen Nielsen, alumna of Kingsborough Community College, who was appointed a member of the Board of Regents at the University of Hawaii. Our native daughter has always had a passion for community service and environmental sustainability. Her current home in Maui for the past 30 years is 100 percent off the grid using independent infrastructure utilizing solar power with rainwater catchment. Until her recent appointment she was a field rep for U.S. Senator Brian Schatz from Hawaii.
You can take the girl out of Brooklyn, but you can’t take the Brooklyn out of the girl, and our Bay Ridge daughter still speaks with pride and fondness of her time as a student.
read ... New Yorker
After years of delays, work begins on traffic center
HNN: Federal, state and city officials gathered Wednesday to break ground for a new joint traffic management center at the corner of Alapai and King Streets, where the project that was originally supposed to be completed in 2012 is now not predicted to be finished until 2017.
While the city began planning for the project in 2005, it's been delayed for as many as five years through several mayoral and gubernatorial administrations.
The federal government is providing $30.2 million of the $53.6 million to build the three-story center that will house six agencies to respond to routine and major traffic problems (and it was placed downtown so it could contribute to those problems as well).
read ... After years of delays, work begins on traffic center
Hawaii Nation's Lowest Rate of Workplace Deaths
FT: the lowest state fatality rate of 1.6 per 100,000 workers was reported in Hawaii, followed by Washington State (1.7), Connecticut and Massachusetts (1.8) and New York (2.1)....
AFL-CIO: Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect
read ... The Five Most Dangerous States to Work In
'Swift & Certain': Hawaii Probation Program Goes National
HP: Judge Steven Alm was confounded after his first week on Hawaii's circuit court. Amongst his other dockets, he watched Hawaii's probation system in action, and he did not like what he saw.
"[It] was an all of nothing system that wasn't working," says Alm.
In 2001, when Alm joined the bench, he saw people on probation that were already on their 15th or even 20th violation. He also witnessed two disparate and subjectively applied probation options: either talk to the person and provide them support or send them to prison for a long time. This approach to probation was uncertain, disproportional and not standardized. So, Judge Alm set out to change how probation worked in his courtroom.
Judge Alm's solution became Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE). It is a program that embodies a deterrence approach to probation and parole.
read ... HOPE
Who Should Pay For Poor Decisions?
MW: There are eight states, including ours, where people who have to be rescued because they made poor hiking, boating or flying decisions can be charged the cost of police, fire department or Coast Guard help.
But nobody’s collecting. Some because they don’t have the resources to prove negligence. Most because they think enforcing those laws might result in people in trouble not calling for help. Then their friends go to help and create more trouble.
People hiking in rainy weather, boaters without radios or beacons, and pilots running out of fuel do cost us money. Simple rescues taking less than an hour cost about $1,000. But with ditched pilots or lost boaters? It can cost $11,000 an hour to fly a Coast Guard helicopter and $20,000 an hour to operate a C-130 search plane.
That cost notwithstanding, the four federal agencies involved in most rescues — Coast Guard, National Park Service, Department of Defense and Federal Emergency Management Agency — only bill someone if a hoax is involved.
read ... Who Should Pay For Poor Decisions?
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