Leaked Nai Aupuni Emails: ‘Godless’ Faction Pushing to Ban Pule at Aha
Permanent Internet Tax Freedom
Josh Green to Run for Governor in 2018?
HTH: Hawaii Island’s state representatives hosted 11 campaign fundraisers that charged at least $25 per person in 2015, with all but one held on Oahu, according to state Campaign Spending Commission records.
Those attending were asked to donate anywhere from $50 to $1,000, according to fundraiser notices filed with the commission. The notices are required if the price or suggested donation of the event exceeds $25….
“Frankly, a lot of people are there,” said Sen. Josh Green, when asked about the Honolulu fundraisers. “They are the lobbyists and the people who are involved.”
If anyone doesn’t need the cash, it’s Green, a Democrat representing Kona and Ka‘u, who has amassed a campaign war chest of $527,956. That is double the amount held by Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, who has the second-largest campaign fund with $248,635.
But he still hosted two fundraisers in Honolulu last year, where he asked those attending to contribute $500 each for his next campaign, which won’t occur until 2018.
Green said he continues to host them because he is considering a run for governor or lieutenant governor in two years, which was one of the reasons people chose to attend. He can use the money for a re-election bid or a campaign for statewide office….
(Anti-GMO Moron) Sen. Russell Ruderman also hosted two fundraisers last year, including the only one held in a representative’s district.
On July 31, he hosted an event with a suggested donation of between $50 and $100 at Pahoa’s Akebono Theater.
Ruderman (D-Puna, Ka‘u) also held a fundraiser Jan. 8 at The Mandalay restaurant in Honolulu. The same amount was requested.
The senator, who is up for re-election in 2016, said that fundraiser was his first in the city, though not a very successful one.
“I will say it was pretty much a total flop,” he said. “I think I raised almost zero.”
His campaign finance report shows he received eight donations totaling $1,300 on the day of the Honolulu event. Contributors included Matson and Bank of Hawaii, which each gave $200.
Campaign finance records are current as of June 30.
(Intelligent, pro-GMO) Hawaii County Councilman Greggor Ilagan, who plans to challenge Ruderman in the Democratic primary, also held a fundraiser in Honolulu last year with some help.
Ilagan said attendees included Senate President Ronald Kouchi, who donated to the campaign and helped bring other people to the event, held Oct. 22 at Vino’s Italian Tapas and Wine Bar. The price or suggested donation was $500….
read … Bishop Street Pot of Gold
Anti-GMO Activists Blamed for Arson at Waialua Farm
KE: In the wee hours of New Year's Eve, North Shore Oahu farmer Derek Agader suffered a “suspicious fire” that destroyed a tractor and two more pieces of farming equipment.
He blamed the arson on anti-GMO/anti-pesticide activists. According to Hawaii News Now: “We hate to call it a hate crime, but it just seems that there's no other way to put it," Agader said. "There's no motive for anything else but people who just don't agree with our practices."
“I've been worried about him and his farm since I started seeing him post farm realities and explanations in response to the rabid activists' claims about farming and use of pesticides on the Oahu North Shore Community Facebook page,” a friend emailed.
Anti-GMO groups like the Center for Food Safety (led in Hawaii by Ashley Lukens) and Gary Hooser's HAPA have been trying to rile up folks on North Shore Oahu since their efforts to destroy biotech on Kauai, Maui and the Big Island were overturned by the courts.
“Ashley and the rest of them are convincing people that they are being poisoned and that DOA [Department of Ag] is incompetent and corrupt, so they think they need to take matters into their own hands.,” my friend wrote.
Just a few days before the fire, Hooser had taken to the opinion pages of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser to rail against pesticides. His piece — titled “Good neighbor policy not enough when neighbor uses risky chemicals” in the S-A and “They truly are poisoning paradise” in a Dec. 30 re-post on his blog — starts out:
Our community cannot rely on “good neighbors” to protect our health and environment. Government intervention is needed now.
Hooser's piece, which railed against the pesticide chlorpyrifos, was riddled with his usual misinformation, innuendo, twisted facts and flat-out lies. But Hooser's recurring message was clear: farmers using pesticides are not “good neighbors.”
Is it any surprise, then, that somebody decided to torch Derek's equipment? From the get-go, the Hawaii anti-GMO/anti-ag movement has engaged in property damage, vandalism, threats and bullying attacks against anyone who stands up to them or dares to question their rhetoric.
Thousands of papaya trees were destroyed on the Big Island and Oahu, a Kauai taro farmer received death threats and had his ditch vandalized by thugs who left anti-GMO stickers behind, public property was defaced with anti-GMO messages on Kauai and Maui. The sugar-haters on Maui also burned two of HC&S's tractors, valued at $500,000 each.
Yet the Hawaii leaders of this anti-ag movement — Center for Food Safety, Babes Against Biotech and Hooser — have never once condemned these tactics. Indeed, from the time that Hooser issued his infamous call for “a million little fists,” it has condoned and even provoked the most despicable tactics.
read … Anti-GMO Arson
$23,000 Rate Hike Coming: Data show Obamacare will produce results opposite of what was intended
SA: Jan. 1 marked the third anniversary of the Affordable Care Act’s implementation in Hawaii.
So it makes sense for Hawaii residents to ask: How is the law playing out in your state?
Not well. Roughly 10,850 people purchased 2016 health insurance on the state’s Affordable Care Act’s online exchange, where they likely found an unpleasant surprise.
Monthly premiums for their plans will be 30 percent higher, on average, than they were in 2015.
Deductibles and out-of-pocket costs also are on the rise, and health care provider networks are narrowing.
The combination of these factors helps explain why the federal government recently halved the number of people it expects to sign up for the law’s health insurance.
While the outlook for the Affordable Care Act is already bleak, the data show it will likely become even worse….
In brief: Costs will continue to rise and coverage will continue to underwhelm. In fact, coverage will likely begin declining in the next few years, leaving millions more Americans uninsured than today….
Over the next decade, I estimate individual and family policy holders will see their rates increase over 61 percent by 2025. That comes to $5,500 a year for an individual policy, and $23,500 for family coverage, on average.
Even federal subsidies will not be enough to cover these costs. Just between 2016 and 2017, policy holders should expect to pay $600 more in premiums, even after subsidies are factored in.
As premiums continue to increase in subsequent years, that out-of-pocket cost will rise correspondingly. Hawaii residents with individual and family plans, respectively, can expect to pay $2,000 and $8,000 more a year by 2025.
This leads to the second component of my study — the decreases in overall coverage.
As costs continue to rise, they will discourage people in Hawaii and across the country from purchasing any health insurance at all.
This is happening already. 2014 data show the IRS fines approximately 7.5 million Americans for choosing to forgo health insurance entirely, even though the Affordable Care Act penalizes them for doing so. The reason is often simple. Consumers forced to choose between an expensive penalty and an even more expensive health insurance plan will often choose the cheaper option. It may be a financial necessity. The number of people making this choice will rise as insurance becomes ever more expensive.
This will undermine the Affordable Care Act’s central goal of universal coverage. I estimate the total number of uninsured in 2025 will be roughly 40 million — roughly as many uninsured Americans as there were before the law was passed….
(Editor’s Note: “I told you so.”)
read … About the Glory of Obamacare
Nai Aupuni Exercise in Frustration, Obviously a Surrogate for OHA
KGI: …Na‘i Aupuni … announced that every candidate who had been running for the 40 seats originally envisioned in the convention would serve … 196 people representing an unbridgeable disparity of views. It means that, instead of the election acting as a filter of sorts, the gathering now envisioned will doubtless become an exercise in frustration as the process bogs down in the politics of Hawaiian sovereignty….
Na‘i Aupuni was too obviously a surrogate for OHA….
read … Full independence impossible, but change needed
ERS pension plan shortfall rises to $8.77B
SA: The ERS pension plan, which provides retirement, disability and survivor benefits to 118,993 active, retired and inactive state and county employees, had a market value $14.5 billion as of the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2015. That’s up from $14.2 billion in fiscal 2014, $12.4 billion in fiscal 2013 and $11.3 billion in fiscal 2012.
Even with its increasing assets, the pension system’s unfunded liability, or shortfall, has continued to grow. It was $8.58 billion in fiscal 2014, $8.49 billion in fiscal 2013 and $8.44 billion in fiscal 2012. The unfunded liability is derived from the total pension liability minus the assets that the ERS has in its portfolio. If the pension liability continues to grow at a higher rate than the assets, then the unfunded liability will grow as well.
But there is a silver lining in that the pension system’s funded ratio improved in the fiscal year ended June 30 to 62.2 percent of where it needs to be to pay all the pensions promised. That’s up from 61.4 percent in June 2014, 60 percent in June 2013 and 59.2 percent in June 2012.
Despite the improvement, Hawaii’s funded ratio remains among the worst in the country….
read … Shortfall
New federal education law offers more flexibility, say isle officials
SA: Under the former No Child Left Behind Act, which had been in effect since 2002, the federal government labeled schools as passing or failing based primarily on a snapshot of reading and math tests students took once a year. Now, with Congress’ reauthorization of the 50-year-old Elementary and Secondary Education Act, states will have the flexibility to design their own accountability systems….
The legislation, signed into law Dec. 10 by President Barack Obama, replaces No Child Left Behind and significantly shifts the balance of control over education policy away from the federal government and back to states….
Hawaii Department of Education officials say it’s too soon to know exactly how the state’s public school system will adapt to the changes; the 1,061-page law won’t be fully implemented until the 2017-18 school year. But the DOE says Hawaii has a head start because it was one of 42 states granted a waiver from the most outdated mandates in No Child Left Behind.
Under that waiver, Hawaii in 2013 implemented a state-developed accountability system known as Strive HI. (All federal waivers will expire Aug. 1, under the Every Student Succeeds Act.)
read … New federal education law offers more flexibility, say isle officials
Hawaii pedestrian death rate among seniors leads the nation
SA: Nineteen pedestrians died in Oahu vehicle accidents in 2015. They were fitness enthusiasts, seniors, homeless residents, military veterans, parents, spouses, friends and loved ones.
The total is an improvement from 2014 when 25 pedestrians were killed on Oahu. But Hawaii has been among the most perilous places for pedestrians of any age, as well as the most dangerous place in the nation for senior pedestrians, a Honolulu Star-Advertiser analysis of federal traffic fatality data from 2010-2014 show.
Hawaii led all states from 2010 to 2014 with a fatality rate of 4.3 per 100,000 people ages 65 and older, and 5.5 per 100,000 for people ages 75 and older, the analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data found. Nationally, the rate for pedestrian fatalities is 2.1 per 100,000 people ages 65 and over and 2.5 per 100,000 people ages 75 and older.
When it comes to pedestrians of all ages killed in accidents, the Aloha State ranked 15th, with a rate of 1.6 per 100,000 people, the analysis showed.
read … Hawaii pedestrian death rate among seniors leads the nation
Star-Adv: Don’t Give More Money to Corrupt HI-5 Program
SA: …Recently, the commodity prices for the recyclable materials have fallen, which company officials said makes the economics more difficult. This has been named as a factor in the closure of 21 redemption centers, 18 of them in the last three months and most run by Reynolds Recycling. This leaves 77 centers in operation statewide.
But the solution isn’t as simple as raising the handling fee by a penny, as some have proposed.
Before any such change is contemplated, the Health Department needs a complete review of the program aimed at reducing losses.
Inefficiencies comprise an issue noted repeatedly in audits but still lingering, even after 10 years.
The first real danger sign flashed in 2013. That’s when a state audit showed HI-5 paying out $6.2 million in 2010-12 for nearly 7.5 million pounds of material that could not be accounted for.
That kind of sloppy bookkeeping should not be tolerated, especially in a program operating with thin margins.
And in July, state Auditor Jan Yamane issued a new report about problems in department procurements, with the DBC program raised up as Exhibit A.
Lax oversight was blamed for decisions to overpay for redemption-center audits that were “of little value,” according to the report.
The department renegotiated the audit contract with its sole bidder from $76,400 to $340,000, and then amended it three times over the course of three years. The grand total: $543,374, or 611 percent above the original price….
2015: Auditor: Fraud-riddled HI5 Program Ripped off by Whole Foods Market for 6 Years
read … HI-5 program needs to be more efficient
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