DoI Adds 2,000 Pro Fed-Wreck Testimonies
Reviewing Hawaii’s FY 2017 supplemental budget
VIDEO: Thirty Meter Telescope, Putting The "Puaa" Back In Ahupuaa, And Oprah Elections
DHHL ‘Disappointed’ by State’s Appeal of Court Ordered Funding
Gold Coast Seawall Hot Potato Case: Supreme Court Hears Arguments
DBEDT: Family of Four Requires $75K to live on Oahu
UH Payroll — 1,600 Unauthorized Positions
SA: At a budget briefing Tuesday before members of the state House and Senate money committees, lawmakers expressed frustration over the university’s annual requests for more public funds, saying the Legislature isn’t convinced that UH is running an efficient and sustainable operation.
One lawmaker blasted the university’s decision last summer to scale back tuition increases for the next two years — forgoing millions in tuition revenue — while another questioned more than 1,600 so-called unauthorized positions at UH, posts that aren’t funded with tax dollars.
At the budget briefing, which stretched on for 2-1/2 hours, UH President David Lassner presented a request for $16.2 million in budget add-ons, including support for the struggling UH Cancer Center and the cash-strapped athletic program. The funding would add to the $428 million in general funds already approved in the state’s two-year budget.
Gov. David Ige’s proposed supplemental budget, which legislators will use as a guide in drafting the state budget when the legislative session starts next week, included $9.8 million in add-ons for UH.
read … 1,600
Kihei HS: Bureaucratic Delay Costs State $100M
MN: If we didn't know better, Monday's long-awaited groundbreaking for Kihei high school would be cause for celebration. Instead, it's an embarrassment and a testament to our dysfunctional statewide public school system.
For at least 15 years, the high school has been an urgent need not only for South Maui students and parents, stuck with a daily commute to Central Maui, but also for the relief of overcrowding at Maui and Baldwin high schools.
The groundbreaking should have happened a decade ago. Instead, we hear bureaucratic waffling. The 2020 opening for the school is "tentative," and the school's cost could be more than $130 million. More time, and more of your money - sound familiar?
We remember when the school was supposed to open in 2016. We remember when $130 million was approved in 2013. At that time, the plan was to save money by building the school all at once. Save time and money . . . what a concept!
Now it's to be done in phases. But don't hold your breath. South Maui State Rep. Kaniela Ing said an additional $50 million to $100 million may be needed. Good luck in getting that past Oahu lawmakers with constituents howling about crowded and poorly maintained schools in their areas.
Monday's photo op for local politicians was a celebration of $3 million released by the governor to dig some wells and build an access road. The release of another $27 million is "under review."
read … Dysfunctional looks like this
Council Still Pretending to ‘Cap’ Rail Expenses, Will Abandon Charade Soon
SA: Honolulu City Council leaders continue to seek a cap on the amount of general excise tax surcharge money that can go toward the construction of the contentious, 20-mile rail transit project.
Bill 23 (2015) authorizing the 0.5 percent surcharge to be extended by five years into 2027 goes before the Council Budget Committee at 9 a.m. today for what may be its last go-round before an expected Jan. 27 final vote of the full Council.
In December, the last time the full Council held a vote on the bill, members voted 7-2 to give it the second of three approvals.
But that vote occurred after a heated debate over whether to remove a cap, which was initially inserted into the bill by Council Chairman Ernie Martin in the fall. Members voted to keep the cap, 5-4.
Council Transportation Chairman Joey Manahan is in the thick of the discussions. A longtime rail supporter, he has been voicing increasing discontent over how the project’s costs have skyrocketed and was among those in favor of a cap during the December vote.
Manahan told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Tuesday that he has been working with Martin and leaders of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation to hash out a new draft of the bill that’s more palatable to all parties….
read … Waiting for Manahan to Flip
After Wasting $87.5M, DoTax Still Can’t Process Tax Returns in Time Because of Outdated Computers
SA: …State Rep. Isaac Choy, who formerly chaired the state Tax Review Commission, offered a suggestion: The department should waive penalties for taxpayers who under-withhold or underestimate their estimated quarterly tax payments.
That deserves serious consideration. If the state cannot meet its responsibility to return money owed to taxpayers in a timely manner, the public deserves a means to protect its own interests.
Ensuring that they don’t end up waiting for their own money back seems a reasonable response.
This is especially true given that this problem stems in part from the state’s outdated digital bookkeeping system, and that it could persist for some time.
Zielinski, who acknowledged that the delays in processing returns were “unacceptable,” said the delay issue would be fixed by this year.
That’s a worthy goal, but the public can be excused for raised eyebrows.
The tax department — like agencies throughout the state — has been dealing with the repercussions of informational technology shortcomings for years.
At the end of its last “upgrade,” the state was out $87.5 million — without much of a system to show for it….
read … Outdated
County Worker Stole Cash for Two Years
HTH: Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Hashizaki told the court if the case went to trial, the state would prove “Ms. DeMello took U.S. currency” from the county’s Registration and Licensing Division while employed there. Hashizaki said an audit revealed the amount taken was $30,818.82.
DeMello was indicted by a Hilo grand jury on July 9, 2014. According to the indictment, the thefts occurred over a two-year period between Aug. 1, 2009, and July 28, 2011.
read … Former county worker pleads no contest to $30K theft
Chun Oakland’s Homeless Tent City Idea Mocked
SA: Chun Oakland said she has been talking about the concept with the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for about three years.
In a statement Tuesday she said the cultural importance of “traditional Hawaiian hale … should not be diminished by referring to it as a ‘thatched hut’ or ‘grass shack.’ This concept as a housing solution is being discussed, may result in legislation and is part of a large array of proposals being considered for this legislative session. … Just as the (Housing and Homeless) task force represents a wide range of business, nonprofit, government, social services and faith-based advocates for housing and homelessness, our thought process should also be broad and out-of-the-box in order to develop solutions to address the issue of housing as well as assist those who need help.”
The idea to allow construction that borrows from the past to help alleviate a modern problem received tentative support from some tourism officials.
Rick Egged, president of the Waikiki Improvement Association, said Tuesday, “As a community we are extremely short of housing. We have a huge housing deficiency. If Sen. Chun Oakland is trying to get creative to address that deficiency, whatever she proposes should be reviewed and given any credence it merits, rather than dismissed out of hand.”
In a statement, Mufi Hannemann, president and CEO of the Hawaii Lodging &Tourism Association, acknowledged “the cultural sensitivity and rationale for proposing alternative housing solutions for the homeless; it’s certainly not a traditional, mainstream idea. For this specific proposal to work, the housing will have to fit its environment, be acceptable to the community, have the necessary utilities, sanitation and safety measures in place and respect the dignity of the people who’ll live there — certainly a daunting challenge.”
But Hannemann said, “From a tourism perspective, it may reinforce a misperception and stereotype held by some that people in Hawaii only live in grass shacks.”
Reality: Homeless tent cities: Seattle’s decade-long nightmare coming to Honolulu?
read … Chun Oakland Does it Again
Caldwell Objects to City Studying Electric Coop, Council Votes to do it Anyway
SA: The Honolulu City Council Committee on Executive Matters and Legal Affairs adopted a resolution Tuesday to study public electrical utility ownership as a potential alternative to NextEra Energy Inc.’s purchase of Hawaiian Electric Industries.
The committee passed Resolution 15-214 with one reservation from Councilman Ron Menor and an objection from Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s office. Seven Council members voted to pass the resolution. One member was absent.
The action by the committee is the first step in the process to analyze what ownership model is the most cost-effective for the city and taxpayers. Options the city would investigate include municipal or cooperative public ownership. The city will compare those with NextEra’s proposed $4.3 billion purchase of Hawaiian Electric Co.’s parent company.
read … Council Vote
Hawaii: More Than 40% of Workers Have no Retirement Plan
CBS: …So why don't workers across the U.S. have more equal opportunities to save for retirement? It comes down to several issues, including worker income, which industries dominate within states and employer size.
The industry with the lowest rate of access to retirement plans is the leisure and hospitality sector, with only one-third of employers providing the benefit to their workers, Pew found. And only 23 percent of workers in those industries end up using the retirement plans, which may be due to the lower salaries for workers in those industries. Florida has the third-highest share of workers in the leisure and hospitality workers, after Nevada and Hawaii.
Employer size also makes a difference, given that bigger companies are more likely to offer retirement plans. Workers in Western states such as New Mexico and California were more likely to work at firms with fewer than 50 workers, which is also tied to lower retirement plan access, Pew found….
PEW: http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/projects/retirement-savings
read … Is your state facing a retirement crisis?
Still Spreading Pesticide Hype, Eco-Lawyer Debunked
CB: Lets just skip to the comments:
First, the fact that glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) was indeed sprayed is contained in a Department of Agriculture report to the Legislature March 3, 2015.
Second, while he fails to mention this, it is notable that in addition to chlorpyrifos, every sample taken at Waimea Canyon Middle School identified more than a dozen chemicals found in stinkweed. And in each case, those chemicals included methyl isothiocyanate (MITC), which causes many of the precise symptoms of the teachers and students at the school.
And about stinkweed, those researchers wrote: “MITC is a highly foul-smelling, noxious chemical at high concentrations, and is cited as a potent lachrymator and nose and throat irritant. Besides MITC, other stinkweed derived compounds found during this study are also known potential irritants.”
Third, he fails to note that the researchers from the UH Department of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering who studied the situation found that “Concentrations of the pesticides and MITC were well below health concern exposure limits or applicable screening levels.”
read … Earth Justice Debunked
State of State: Ige Catches Kalihi Prison Fever
SA: Gov. David Ige’s administration hopes to fast-track relocation of the Oahu Community Correctional Center, the state’s largest prison, as public safety officials continue to grapple with perpetual overcrowding and deteriorating conditions.
The administration is “feverishly” working on a bill that will expedite construction of a new facility next to the existing Halawa Correctional Facility, Department of Public Safety Director Nolan Espinda told lawmakers at a budget briefing Tuesday.
He said more details about the plan are expected to be divulged during Ige’s State of the State address Jan. 25. In the meantime he declined to discuss anticipated costs or a relocation timeline….
read … Fever
Soft on Crime: Probationer Charged with Child Molestation, Gets Supervised Release
HTH: A man is on supervised release after a grand jury indicted him on charges of sexually abusing a girl younger than 14 years old from Jan. 1, 2009-Dec. 1, 2011….
Three of the counts are continuous sexual assault of a minor younger than 14, covering various times of the alleged abuse. The other three cases are first-degree assault and allege specific instances….
Judge Fujino ordered supervised release….
read … Soft on Crime
Civil Beat Pushes Gambling Again
CB: Lets just skip to the comments: “Your argument that marketing makes lotteries progressive sources of state income rings hollow. Lotteries appeal to low income families struggling to catch the American dream, regardless of how they are marketed.”
KGI: Would you buy Powerball tickets if they were sold in Hawaii?
read … Wash rinse repeat
Suicide Squad Launches Annual Push to help Insurance Companies Save Money by Killing off Expensive Patients
CB: Oregon came first, then Washington, Montana (a lie), Vermont and, most recently, California. (In other states, the suicide squad spreads the lie that suicide is legal in Hawaii.)
Each state has passed legislation that allows terminally ill, mentally competent individuals to end their own lives with medical assistance, legally.
Best Comment: “Correction please …. Assisted suicide is a homicide in Montana. Our Supreme Court vacated the lower court's claim that it was a constitutional right.”
read … Profits before People
Ige Budget: $15 million to expand inmate capacity on Sister Isles
CB: The three jails have a combined operational bed capacity of 655, but 1,250 inmates were being housed there at the end of December, according to the latest weekly population report.
read … More Room to Lock Up
Hawaii Democrats Feel the Bern—Hillary Losing Fundrace
ILind: Here’s the bottom line. During the three month period, Sanders not only had more contributors, but also raised 65% more than Clinton ($26,289 to Clinton’s $15,840).
read … Bottom Line
Coming Soon: Video On Demand From The Hawaii Capitol
CB: HSPAN — the Hawaii State Public Access Network — will broadcast on Channel 50, a digital channel available on Oceanic Time Warner Cable.
Capitol TV, which broadcasts state House and Senate hearings, briefings and major floor sessions, will control the production at the Capitol, while Olelo Community Media will manage the transmission….
Capitol TV’s website also indicates that its broadcasts or rebroadcasts may be viewed on Akaku (Maui Community Television Channel 54) and Na Leo O Hawaii in Hilo and Kona on the Big Island.
LINK: http://capitoltv.org/session.html
read … On Demand
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