Auditor: DoTax allows $2B in Tax Credits Without Checking
Obama Push for Federal Recognition is On
Lawmakers Call for Exploration of Publicly Owned Utilities for Hawaii
Ward: Coop Does not Mean Lower Rates
Report: Hawaii 1st in solar energy per capita
Bridge Aina Lea: Federal Court Dismisses Most of Case
A Mom on a Mission for Science
Omidyar’s EBay urged to Stop Selling Illegal Drugs
Call for nominations for University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents
Moody's Downgrades UH as System Burns Cash Reserves
DoTax Wastes $87M on Failed Tech Upgrades, Wants $30M More
Borreca: ...“First we need to modernize the tax-collection system, it is so old and antiquated, and I am convinced that hundreds of millions of dollars of taxes already owed is being lost. We need to finish that as soon as possible,” Ige told me in an interview shortly after his November win last year....
Hawaii’s Tax Department has been an expensive bungled mess for years. Back in 2010, the state auditor noted that in 1999, the department began a $51 million “effort to replace its aging computer system.”
In five years, the Tax Department finished six “major system implementations,” followed by 13 “project enhancements,” the auditor said.
Not content to rest with its implemented enhancements, the department came back in 2008 to spent $25 million more for a new delinquent-tax-collection system.
“Long-term planning for these projects was minimal to non-existent, and oversight was left to managers with no formal project management or information technology background,” said the auditor.
In all, between 1999 and 2011, the state spent $87.5 million tax dollars to “modernize” the Hawaii tax system.
So how did the folks down on Punchbowl Street do with this festival of cutting-edge high tech?
“The existing system is so antiquated it cannot even handle scanning paper tax forms,” said Maria Zielinski, Ige’s newly named tax director during a legislative hearing last month....
Zielinski told the legislators that the state is moving ahead with two $30 million projects.... ($87M + $30M = $117M)
read ... It’s been a taxing effort to upgrade Tax Department
Morita: Utility ownership models a distraction
PBN: When the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission begins its listening tour some will make utility ownership model a primary argument to oppose the HECO-NextEra merger. Ownership talk is a huge distraction at a time when Hawaii’s utilities are going through a period of high uncertainty with significant shifts in technology, customer preferences and the regulatory environment. Irrespective of type of utility ownership, to navigate during this time of transformation a well-functioning electric utility requires insightful leadership, nimble and flexible strategic planning and strong analytical capacity. A particular ownership model does not guarantee any of these characteristics or qualities required for an electric utility to successfully navigate an energy transformation and may, in fact, hinder it with decisions based on politics rather than fact, technology, economics and best practices.
While I have heard several politicians extolling the benefits of a public or cooperative owned utility through cavalier remarks, concrete discussion or analysis on how the purchase will be made or a clear understanding of who takes on the investment risk is nonexistent. Details are important in this alternative ownership model debate because just hearing the upside alone could prove to be very costly for the electricity customer and taxpayer. If the right leadership or employee capacity are not in place and regulatory oversight is removed, all risks, especially during this period of advancing and disruptive technology when a significant amount of new investments will be made, will be placed squarely on the shoulders of ratepayers and taxpayers.
Without knowing exactly how the electricity customer and taxpayer will be impacted the muni-coop rhetoric is merely a distraction with insubstantial soundbites....
IM: NextEra asserts we're not "The Big Bad Wolf"
read ... Distraction
Wrong Species: Caldwell Spokesman says Sewage Flooding Claims are 'Bullshit'
CB: A Honolulu City Council member has sent a letter to Mayor Kirk Caldwell complaining that the mayor’s chief spokesman disrupted a TV news interview last week to challenge comments he’d made about the mayor.
Trevor Ozawa says Communications Director Jesse Broder Van Dyke approached him just before an Aug. 25 interview with KHON reporter Manolo Morales, which was being conducted in a public area at Honolulu Hale.
The interview focused on Ozawa’s criticism of the city’s lack of preparation for a recent sewage spill. Ozawa says Broder Van Dyke called Ozawa’s remarks “bullshit.”
The animosity began building the previous day. In an earlier interview with Morales, Ozawa had said that Caldwell and his administration should have been better prepared for a massive wastewater spill, which occurred that same day during heavy rains on Oahu....
As Ozawa prepared to do a follow-up interview with Manolo the next day “Jesse confronted me in a hostile manner about my comments in a news story,” Ozawa wrote in the letter to Caldwell, which is dated that same day.
“What is extremely disappointing and unbecoming of a member of the city’s executive branch, Jesse proceeded to use profanity to describe my interview with Manolo using the word ‘bullshit,'” Ozawa says in the letter, which was copied to all council members. “I found his comments, demeanor, and the use of profanity against a sitting member of the Honolulu City Council obnoxious and disappointing.”
Ozawa adds, “This unfortunate and unacceptable situation occurred in the presence of members of the media and we’re extremely fortunate that no members of the public were close enough to witness his disappointing remarks.”
(BTW: Where is KHON with a video or report of this encounter?)
read ... Hostile Jesse
13 More homeless moved out of Kakaako and into shelters
HNN: ...Another 13 people moved out of the Kakaako encampment on Thursday, September 3rd, bringing to 56 the total number of homeless campers who have transitioned from Kakaako to homeless shelters around Oahu since August 7, 2015.
The 13 individuals include two families, one couple and four single adults who were transported by a city bus to the Lighthouse Emergency Shelter in Waipahu where they will receive needed services and temporary housing.
To date – 56 people, including 10 families (or 19 percent of the 293 individuals surveyed in early August) have left Kakaako for various shelters and are receiving services to help them to eventually transition to permanent, supportive housing. The 10 families who have moved out of Kakaako represent one-third of the 31 homeless families in the area.
During the month of August 2015, 36 people, including eight families transitioned out of the Institute for Human Services (I.H.S.), Next Step, and Lighthouse shelters into permanent housing....
read ... Lucky 13
CoR: More Money for 2016, But Hawaii’s Fiscal Forecast Less Certain Later
CB: The Council on Revenues upgraded its general-fund growth projections for the current fiscal year, but predicts the fund will be less than anticipated in the next five years.
SA: Economists expect state tax revenue to increase by 6 percent
read ... More Money for 2016, But Hawaii’s Fiscal Forecast Less Certain Later
iLEAD Charter School denied second time
KGI: A California-based charter school’s application to establish a branch on Kauai was recently denied by the Hawaii State Charter School Commission.
The international Leadership Entrepreneurial Development Arts Design school, or iLEAD, has now presented a proposal for a school on Kauai that has been turned down twice....
read ... iLead
Legislators: We Gave DoE $258M for AC--Where is it?
HNN: Ewa Beach Elementary, Ilima Intermediate and Campbell High School. According to the Department of Education they're a top priority when it comes to installing air conditioning. But looking at the list the agency gave the public, you wouldn't know the projects are in the works.
"Our apologies for not expressing that these were funded but we are working on these," said Senior Assistant Superintendent Amy Kunz.
House Finance Committee Chair Sylvia Luke says the legislature funded those projects directly. On top of that the DOE was given more than $258-million for construction including possible A/C projects. DOE chose to spend only $2 to $3-million of that for heat abatement.
"We have purchased every portable AC on the island currently about 140 units and we are deploying them to classrooms right now," said Kunz.
read ... $258M
Start School Cool--After Labor Day
SA: Hawaii does not have the mechanical infrastructure to start public schools in July or August....
There are two options to fix this immediate health problem:
>> Spend $1.7 billion to put air conditioners in all Hawaii public schools now.
>> Delay the start date for public schools to after Labor Day and allocate money annually to start retrofitting schools.
It is unlikely that state legislators will spend $1.7 billion all at once on air conditioners in public schools (option 1).
Sadly, this hasn’t been a priority for current elected officials, which is why the school start date has to be after Labor Day (option 2)....
read ... Jaci Agustin
Trifling over field trips does disservice to teachers, kids
SA: You’d think the state Ethics Commission would have better things to do than kick already beleaguered public school teachers and take educational opportunities away from public school kids....
read ... Trifling
Soft On Crime: Multiple Felony Convictions, out on the Street Does it Again
KHON: An Oahu woman thought she was safe in her own home. Then a stranger attacked her.
Kea Davis Milo was home alone Tuesday morning when the suspect, Robert Parks, 36, allegedly came into her home through an unlocked screen door.
According to Davis Milo, he then beat her for nearly 10 minutes.
She still has deep bruises on her face, bleeding in her eye and swelling on her cheek. She also has bruising on her arms and the back of her head.
“This is the one that hurts,” she said about a bruise on her arm.
Davis Milo was attacked inside her own kitchen. “My body didn’t move. I just got to the point where my body said stop moving. In the beginning, I was fighting but it didn’t work,” she said.
The emotional scars will take even more time to heal.
“I just felt somebody choke me. He was just choking me,” she said. “I was trying to protect my face. There is a space between the cabinet and floor that I stuck my face in to try to protect my face. He just continued to hit me. I would say it lasted seven to nine minutes.”
In the end, the suspect didn’t take a thing from the home.
Davis Milo called police and was able to identify him at a park nearby. Parks was charged with burglary and several drug offenses.
Parks remains in custody and is scheduled to be in court in a week. He has an extensive criminal background, including several felonies.
read ... Several Felonies, now More
Cops in Court
Anti-GMO Activists Hold Back Progress
KE: ...it's been waiting 15 years for the FDA to act on its application to deregulate the fish, with no end in sight. The slow, expensive, and unpredictable regulatory process discourages investors, whose capital is needed to support research and to move transgenic animals into the marketplace, conference participants said.
“We have real issues in agriculture and human health, but we don't have the resources to address it,” said Dr. Bruce Whitelaw, deputy director of the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland....
read ... Musings: Talk About It
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