Governor Ige Proclaims Jan. 24-30 “Hawai’i School Choice Week”
State-Local Tax Burden—Hawaii Ranks 14th
Legislators Scale Back Opening Day Celebrations, Focus on Campaign Fundraisers Instead
CB: The chairs of three committees in the Hawaii House of Representatives are accepting campaign contributions at MW Restaurant Tuesday night.
Reps. Karl Rhoads (Judiciary), Della Au Belatti (Health) and Mark Nakashima (Labor and Public Employment) are each asking for donations of $175.
A flier promoting the fundraiser identifies the committee assignments.
By sheer coincidence, Wednesday is the opening day of the 2016 Hawaii Legislature, where people who donate to candidates also seek to influence a whole bunch of stuff.
Also raising campaign cash Tuesday evening is Molokai Rep. Lynn DeCoite, Oahu Rep. Matt LoPresti, and Oahu Rep. Jared Keohokaloleo….
read … House Dems Hold Campaign Fundraiser
State Squeezing Counties on TAT in Hope of 12.5% GE Tax Hike
KGI: “We do have a resolution on the floor today that encourages the state to accept the recommendations of the working group, hopefully to create a little more revenue for the counties,” Rapozo said last Wednesday.
White believes the counties shouldn’t accept anything less than half of the TAT revenues, after payment to the four entities that also have a stake in the tax.
Right now, he said, the state is encouraging counties to make up the losses they’ve been taking because of the TAT cap, with a surcharge on the General Excise Tax.
That’s already a 4 percent charge on all purchases statewide, and the state is allowing counties to raise that by one half of a percent. (A 12.5% increase.)
“GET funds came with a requirement for transportation and infrastructure, though, and you can’t use GET money to pay for visitor costs for the counties,” Rapozo said.
Kauai officials haven’t decided if they’re going to raise the GET….
Related: Report: Return County TAT Deal to Status Quo Ante
read … Push for Tax Hike
Senate Reorganization Drops Massive GE Tax Hike in Roz Baker’s Lap
CB: With the end-of-session Senate shakeup last May, power was consolidated among the members of the factions that supported Ron Kouchi to be the new president.
Now, as attention turns to the start of the 2016 session Wednesday, there are concerns that too few have too much control over what legislation might advance in the 25-member chamber.
And there are questions about whether some committees were merged to sideline members of the group that had wanted to keep Donna Mercado Kim as Senate president….
…In at least a few cases, lawmakers who were considered authorities on certain issues — Sen. Josh Green for health, Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland for housing, Sen. Russell Ruderman for food, and Sen. Laura Thielen for land — were replaced with lawmakers who supported the reorganization.
Green, the only medical doctor in the chamber, was pulled from his post as head of the Health Committee and given the token position of majority floor leader.
And instead of remaining as a separate committee, Health was added to the Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee, which Sen. Roz Baker will head. She previously chaired Commerce and Consumer Protection.
Baker broke with the Chess Club faction that had installed Kim as Senate president in 2012 through an alliance with a four-member faction led by Sen. Jill Tokuda. Tokuda’s hui instead joined with the Opihi faction that made Kouchi president.
Baker now has one of the most powerful committees, arguably second only to Ways and Means, which Tokuda is chairing again this session….
This broadened Commerce, Consumer Protection and Health Committee is expected to hear a bill that proposes raising the general excise tax a half-percent to provide long-term assistance …
FACE: Hawaii needs massive GE Tax Hike for long-term care
read … Baker tax Hike
Public Housing, DHHL Rentals top Homeless Agenda
SA: …Two options are obvious: The Hawaii Public Housing Authority needs to get funding to repair its units and move them back into the affordable-rental inventory. There must be further investments in the Rental Housing Revolving Fund used by the Hawaii Housing Finance &Development Corp. to leverage financing for affordable rentals construction projects.
In addition, the Legislature is pursuing a promising strategy enabled last year by the passage of House Bill 142. The legislation presses the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to provide its own inventory of rentals, serving its Native Hawaiian beneficiaries who may not be able to qualify for home ownership.
The law regulates how DHHL uses revenue from its allotment of affordable housing credits, which are allocated by the state to incentivize affordable housing. Agencies can sell the credits to developers, who in turn can use them in place of providing the units in a project.
DHHL now must reserve one-quarter of what it earns from the transfer of credits for affordable rentals. House Democratic Majority Leader Scott Saiki said leadership will steer DHHL toward rentals….
read … Agenda
Great News: Homeless Sweeps Would Proliferate Under Ige’s Budget Plan
CB: The Hawaii governor wants to allocate more than $1.6 million to state enforcement efforts, an idea the usual suspects say would get homeless off the streets, thus ending their usefulness as props in a political morality play designed to undermine America….
read … Force Them to Accept Shelter
Bill Would Get Rid of Scott Nago
HTH: As of Monday, six bills had been prefiled by area lawmakers, with all but one introduced by Rep. Joy San Buenaventura.
Among the legislation are efforts to clamp down on squatting, require appointments of the state’s chief of elections to be approved by the Senate, and reform asset seizure laws.
San Buenaventura (D-Puna) said her elections bill is another response to the troubled 2014 election that saw voting for about 8,000 Puna residents delayed because of Tropical Storm Iselle.
“I think somebody needs to be accountable to the voters if somebody isn’t doing it right,” she said.
A growing issue in Puna subdivisions is people squatting in homes owned by people on the mainland or banks located overseas, San Buenaventura said.
Her bill would list squatting as a public nuisance, which would give neighborhood associations authority to evict the unauthorized residents.
During the session, San Buenaventura said she also intends to address a loophole in an insurance bill passed to help those affected by the June 27 lava flow that allows insurance companies to not insure for a six-month period.
She also wants to allow medical marijuana dispensaries to be able to grow plants in shade or greenhouses and require mediation between homeowners associations and residents before disputes head to court.
Sen. Lorraine Inouye (D-Hilo, Waimea, Waikoloa) prefiled one bill that would extend the state’s special purpose revenue bond authorization for BioEnergy Hawaii LLC until mid-2021. The authorization is set to expire June 30.
Initially proposed to be located at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority site, the company’s cogeneration biofuel plant would produce 9 megawatts of electricity, according to testimony submitted to the Legislature in 2011, when the authorization was provided.
Inouye said the company, owned by Pacific Waste, is looking at another project site in the Waimea area….
MN: Maui Legislators Push Gambling
read … Office of Elections
Revealed: Wealthy Mainlanders Funding Hawaii Anti-GMO Movement
KE: A review of the newest batch of foundation and nonprofit tax returns shows that anti-GMO groups like Center for Food Safety (CFS), Hawaii SEED and Gary Hooser's HAPA receive nearly all their money from corporate sources, including manufacturing, oil and multinational pharmaceuticals.
The corporate funding is especially ironic in light of the groups' recent Food Justice Summit, where speakers railed against Western corporations….
The sharp disconnect between rhetoric and actual funding underscores the deep hypocrisy of the groups. But the money that's being donated points to another, much bigger concern. As these anti-GMO groups actively lobby politicians and field candidates, they are helping a few wealthy mainlanders exert undue influence on Island politics and policies, with virtually no public scrutiny, awareness or accountability.
The primary benefactors of the Hawaii anti-GMO/anti-ag groups are the Ceres Trust and Ceres Foundation, which were founded by Judith Kern using profits from the sale of her father's Midwestern generator manufacturing company, and the Marisla Foundation, started by oil heiress and occasional North Shore Kauai resident Anne Getty Earhart. Marisla is endowed with a wide range of corporate stocks.
Though HAPA's mission statement directs the group to “catalyze community empowerment and systemic change towards valuing ʻaina (environment) and people ahead of corporate profit,” it nonetheless runs on corporate profits . The group reported income of $121,446 in 2014. Though HAPA claims to be grassroots, it received $50,000 from Marisla, $50,000 from Ceres Trust, $10,000 from the Herb Block Foundation, an undisclosed grant from the Hawaii People's Fund and a grant from CFS to make a video. In other words, virtually none of its funding is “grassroots.”
Marisla also gave CFS $75,000 in 2014 and $125,000 to the Center for Media and Democracy, a source of slanted reporting against GMOs. It gave another $445,000 to the Hawaii Community Foundation (HCF) for grants funded under the "Marisla Fund," but the HCF website does not reference that fund, and its own tax return is not yet available.
But the bigger money comes from Ceres, which in 2014 gave CFS $20,789 for "Hawaii Strategy Meeting Expenses," $600,000 for "General Operating Support," $10,000 for a speaking tour co-hosted with Hawaii Seed and the Pesticide Action Network (a group that also spent money advocating for GMO/pesticide regulatory Bill 2491 on Kauai), for a total of $630,789.
The Hawaii anti-GMO groups frequently work in tandem, and though they maintain a facade of independence, they're frequently populated with the same activists using money from the same source. In 2014, for example, the Ceres Trust gave Hawaii SEED $76,396 to fund an Oahu outreach coordinator and $84,885 for seed workshops. It also gave the Kohala Center, which is linked to Nancy Redfeather of Hawaii SEED, $84,885 for general operating support.
As an aside, Kern and her husband, Kent Whealy, previously contributed to the campaign of Walter Ritte, secretary of Hawaii SEED, when he made a failed bid for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
Meanwhile, the Ceres Foundation, Kern's other Milwaukee-based charity, separately gave $500,000 to the Center for Food Safety in 2014. An already filed 2015 return for the Ceres Foundation shows that it has dissolved and transferred the balance of its funds to the Ceres Trust.
The Ceres Trust also provides nearly all the funding for E Kupaku Ka Aina (Hawaiian Land Restoration Institute), a group that has worked against GMO taro. In 2014, it received $328,735 from Ceres for a "Taro Project" and another $50,000 for a kalo production video documentary. As an indication of the impact wielded by the Ceres money, consider that E Kupaku's budget was $11,638 in 2010 and just $50 in 2009.
What's more, the Ceres money allows E Kupuku to engage in largesse, such as awarding 2013 subgrants to the Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in Kona ($23,741), which has been active in anti-GMO efforts, and Maui Nui Botanical Gardens ($47,294)….
This outsider funding of local anti-GMO movements is repeated in Vermont and California, where Ceres has been a major player in the labeling fight.
The overall objective is influencing the national legal and regulatory framework via select county ordinances and state laws, with the hope that the rest of the nation follows suit. They know they can't win everywhere, which is why the Hawaii GMO court cases are so important.
Meanwhile, the local anti-GMO groups — eager for cash, and not too astute — are allowing themselves to be used as political pawns by the 1%….
NBC: Scholars Reflect on Closing of Hawaii's Last Sugar Plantation
read … Musings: Bite the Hand
Oahu customers could have saved $132M on fuel costs with LNG in 2015
PBN: The use of liquefied natural gas as a replacement for oil would have saved Oahu electric utility customers $132 million in fuel costs, according to an 18-month study commissioned by Hawaii Gas that was released on Tuesday.
The Honolulu-based gas utility has chosen an international company for its plan to ship in liquefied natural gas in bulk amounts to the Islands, as first reported by PBN.
(And so-called environmentalists are fighting tooth and nail to stop it. They’re afraid LNG will undercut useless solar and wind farms.)
read … $132M per Year
Honolulu spending $5.2B on sewage system, but not expanding capacity
PBN: Hawaii Gov. David Ige recently told PBN the crumbling sewage system is the main contributor to Hawaii’s housing development problem, but the City and County of Honolulu's Department of Environmental Services thinks this claim is unfair.
However, while the city is spending $5.2 billion on upgrading the Oahu's sewage system, the money is not going toward expanding capacity….
The department has a 25-year agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to upgrade its system. The Consent Decree, which was established in 2010, involves upgrading the wastewater collection system, constructing secondary treatment facilities at the Sand Island and Honouliuli plants.
“Expansion is low on our list of plans,” said Ross Tanimoto, deputy director at the department….
The news will come as a blow to the governor and developers, who all claim the sewers are a reason they can’t build affordable homes. However, the department said this claim is unfounded.
“We don’t think we are the hold up,” said Timothy Houghton, deputy director at the department….
read … Sewage?
Federal Grab for West Hawaii Water Could Take Years
WHT: …The last major decision on whether control of the water should be placed in state hands happened last August. That was when the state Commission on Water Resource Management declined a National Park Service request to create a smaller water use management area within the larger aquifer.
Since then, the war over water has gone quiet.
Peter Young — a former chairman of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources who is now a consultant opposing the designation — said that no news in good news.
“It’s not over, which is relatively good, because in the beginning there was a push to get it done fast,” Young said at a meeting last week in Kailua-Kona.
Jonathan Scheuer, a consultant for NPS on the aquifer designation, said on Tuesday that it took nearly 20 years for the Iao aquifer on Maui to be designated a state water management area. The designation places control of pumping and permits in the hands of CWRM rather than the county departments of water supply.
“The first attempt to bring (Iao) aquifer under regulatory control by the state predates the water code, which passed in 1987,” Scheuer said in an email. “Iao was finally designated in 2003….”
The West Hawaii business community and most local, state and federal lawmakers have expressed opposition to the designation, saying it is premature and would open up the water permitting process to crippling lawsuits.
“Under designation, NPS could contest every well, every permit,” said Bo Kahui, executive director of Laiopua 2020. “They could drag this out in court.”….
Related: Study Shows how Coral Death Hype can be used to Gain Control of Your Land
read … Keauhou aquifer resolution could be a long time coming
SHOPO Asks State To Stop Kauai Body Camera Use
CB: The union has asked the Labor Relations Board to issue a cease and desist order until those negotiations over a body cameras have been completed. Union officials are also seeking reimbursement of legal fees and other costs.
Here’s what the union had to say in its complaint:
Body-Worn Cameras constitute a condition of work, and are thus, necessarily a subject of mandatory bargaining that requires the mutual consent of both parties. The Employer’s purported camera policy requires police officers to wear the Body-Worn Cameras throughout their shift, requiring minute by minute decisions on whether to activate or not, consider privacy issues, emergencies, etc., and subjects them to disciplinary action for violations of working requirements associated with the usage of the cameras.
The policy also dictates when and where the camera is required to be used and not used; when the camera is to be turned on and off; duplication of recordings; downloading, securing and storing of recordings; where the camera is to be positioned on the officer during on-duty hours; what disclosures are to be made by an officer to a member of the public that may be the subject of a recording; whether the public can review a recording at a scene; and what types of reports are to be generated by an officer making a recording….
read … No Photos
Man accused of setting fire to girlfriend had been released from jail days ago
HNN: Young-Townsend has a criminal record that includes assault and drug crimes. He recently spent several days in jail for violating probation and had been released on January 6….
Bobby Young-Townsend was arguing with his girlfriend, 24-year old Leilani Parado, in a van about 2 p.m. on Lihakai Drive when he allegedly set her on fire.
Witnesses say Parado ran down the street with flames on her arms, back and legs. Neighbors helped her and called for 911.
KHON: Court records show that he was found guilty of assault in July 2015. He pleaded guilty for beating up another woman, an ex-girlfriend. He also served time for violating a temporary restraining order, and for harassment in 2012.
read … Soft on Crime
Peter Carlisle Wants to be Your Cannabis Connection
PBN: What led a former Honolulu mayor and city prosecuting attorney to enter Hawaii’s burgeoning medical marijuana industry?
“It's odd for me to be a believer in [marijuana] because of my law enforcement background,” admits Peter Carlisle, just seconds after sitting down for an interview at PBN’s office….
Carlisle, a partner at O’Connor Playdon & Guben, is assisting — and investing in — the Wellness Group, one of the entities vying for Hawaii’s first medical marijuana dispensary licenses. The Hawaii State Department of Health is collecting applications now for the first eight dispensary licenses….
SA: Those of us who back Hemp lack imagination
read … Peter Carlisle on why he decided to enter Hawaii medi-juana industry
Hawaii County to begin Hiring Drug Addicts, Thanks to ACLU
WHT: After a four-minute public hearing Tuesday attended by no one from the public, Hawaii County adopted new rules governing drug testing of successful job applicants.
The change removes two provisions: one that requires a prospective employee to pass a pre-employment controlled substance drug test and one that requires the candidate to attest that during the previous three years he or she was not convicted of any controlled substance-related offense.
The county, however, will continue screening employees defined as “safety-sensitive,” such as police officers and positions regulated by the federal Department of Transportation. That’s about 3 percent of county employees.
The rule change follows a settlement of a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union….
read … County curtails employee drug tests
Lawsuit: ACLU Board Member was Homosexual Child Molester at Kamehameha School
CB: A new middle school student from Kauai studying at Kamehameha Schools on Oahu, Christopher Conant missed his family back home and was suffering “transition issues” in adjusting to big-city Honolulu.
So school officials did what they commonly did for such students back in those days — sometime during the 1968-69 school year — they referred him to the school psychiatrist for therapy.
But that psychiatrist, Dr. Robert McCormick Browne, (a board member of Hawaii ACLU) may not have given Conant the help he needed. Instead, according to allegations raised in a lawsuit filed Tuesday, he gave Conant powerful narcotics and repeatedly sexually abused him. That alleged abuse, according to family members, started the 12-year-old on a lifelong downward spiral that included drug and alcohol abuse and ultimately his untimely death four decades later. He only shared his long-held secret with his family the month before he died.
“My brother’s life was ruined by this situation,” his older brother, Blake Conant, told reporters at an emotionally charged Tuesday press conference….
The plaintiffs allege that Browne was a pedophile who “repeatedly, regularly and systematically” preyed on scores of Kamehameha middle school boarding students between 1957 and 1985, using drugs and predatory tactics wrapped in psychotherapeutic language to coerce the boys — typically referred to him for behavioral or disciplinary issues — into sexual activity.
Students who were reluctant to take part in Browne’s “therapy” sessions were threatened with dismissal from Kamehameha, according to the attorneys representing the 26 plaintiffs. All of the boys were under the age of 16 at the time of the alleged abuse….
Browne himself has been dead for 25 years. After one of his former student victims confronted him in a 1991 phone call, vowing to expose him, Browne “fatally shot himself in the head, his body found the next day in the neighbor’s backyard,” the lawsuit says….
Two years ago, a similar suit involving many of the same plaintiffs was dismissed so that the alleged victims could go before the Medical Inquiry Conciliation Panel, which is “responsible for conducting informal conciliation hearings on inquires regarding health care providers before a lawsuit may be filed based on such inquiries.”
All 26 plaintiffs have now told their stories individually to the panel where they were also heard by representatives of Kamehameha Schools, Davis said Tuesday….
read … ACLU
FBI: Property crimes make up majority of crime in Honolulu
KHON: …The report includes the following for Honolulu:
- Violent crime: 1,158
- Murder: 12
- Rape: 147
- Robbery: 438
- Aggravated Assault: 561
- Property Crime: 13,836
- Burglary: 2,072
- Larceny-Theft: 10,144
- Motor Vehicle Theft: 1,620
- Arson: 126
Click here to view the FBI’s full results and breakdown by state.
KHON: Hawaii considered one of safest destinations for travelers
read … Statistics
BNP Paribas prepares multi-billion IPO of First Hawaiian Bank, say sources: Reuters
R: BNP Paribas has chosen banks to prepare a multi-billion dollar stock market listing for its U.S. unit First Hawaiian Bank, sources close to the matter said.
Three sources told Reuters that Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Merrill Lynch had been appointed as co-ordinaters for the French bank’s move. One of the sources said BNP Paribas was estimating the value of the business at between $4 billion and $5 billion.
read … IPO
Coast Guard suspends search for 12 Marines off Oahu’s North Shore
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