Hirono: Obama’s CIA Spied on Me
Honolulu Rail Project Cost Approaching One Half of Boston Big Dig
HB326: Bad Mortgages to be Foundation for Calvin Say State Bank
Tax Is for the Birds
Ige to Propose Massive Utility Tax Hike--use hot schools as excuse
SA: Gov. David Ige has been contemplating a plan to have Hawaiian Electric Co. install air conditioning in the public schools that need it, and to reimburse the utility for the cost of the program through a fee tacked on to utility customers’ bills, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser has learned.
Cindy McMillan, director of communications for Ige, confirmed the administration has been working on “dynamic and changing” plans to provide air conditioning for schools, but said she was unable to provide any details. If the administration were to announce any such initiative, it would likely be during the governor’s State of the State address on Monday, she said.
Ige Chief of Staff Mike McCartney said through McMillan that it is “incorrect” that the administration intends to have the utilities handle the air-conditioning work, and to reimburse them with a new charge on ratepayers.
However, Public Utilities Commission Chairman Randy Iwase said he has heard about the proposal, which was a subject of much discussion last week among both government and utility officials. Iwase declined to discuss the details because “it’s the governor’s policy call,” and the issue could eventually come before the commission for consideration.
If the Ige administration does seek a surcharge on utility bills to finance air conditioning for the schools, it could pursue the initiative either by asking for PUC approval, or by asking the state Legislature to change state law to establish a surcharge on consumers for that purpose, Iwase said….
read … Massive Tax Hike
Ige Calls for More Spending Questioned After Departments Fail to Spend Federal Money
SA: …House Finance Committee Chairwoman Sylvia Luke subjected Ige’s director of finance, Wes Machida, to a particularly long, unpleasant round of questioning about the state budget on Jan. 4. During that hearing, Machida told Luke half a dozen times that he did not have the information she wanted, and would have to report back to her later.
Luke warned Machida to pass the word to Ige’s other department heads: “It’s not excusable for you to say you’re going to get back to us….
The Hawaii Public Housing Authority has a waiting list of more than 20,000 people, “and we have no idea how that is being addressed,” Saiki said. At the same time, he said there has been a “significant slowdown” in the number of housing units developed by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands over the past five years, which also has a long waiting list.
Saiki also pointed out that the transportation and Hawaiian Home Lands departments were so slow to spend federal funding for projects, the federal government either threatened to rescind the money or actually did so….
Luke and Tokuda also expressed doubts about new Ige proposals to spend an extra $164 million to more quickly pay off the state’s unfunded liability for public worker retiree health benefits, and to tuck away another $100 million in the state’s emergency budget reserve, or “rainy day” fund….
lawmakers noted the union contracts covering tens of thousands of public workers expire next fiscal year and the administration didn’t budget for a new round of public employee raises. Each pay increase of 1 percent for public workers costs the state about $50 million extra per year.
The lawmakers further noted Ige’s draft budget would spend $488 million more next fiscal year than the state expects to receive in revenue….
read … Ige budget to confront resistance from legislators
Governor No Can Do
SA: “You mean ‘Governor No Can Do?’” responded one Democrat when asked what he thought Ige should say during Monday’s speech.
Another veteran House leader, speaking with the promise of anonymity, said Ige, like his predecessor, former Gov. Neil Abercrombie, should be expected to come at the job with a complete skill set because of the years he has in office, but “may not understand his role and how he is supposed to fulfill it.”
“If you ask people, they will not be able to say he has a tangible goal,” the legislator said.
Another legislator said it took Ige until last month to have his Cabinet organized enough to send representatives to all the neighborhood board meetings on Oahu.
“So they went one year without being able to get their voice out to the community,” the lawmaker said, adding that Ige’s allies worry that “he is not connecting with anyone.”
Still another lawmaker complained that even Ige’s own staff admits that the communication problem extends to simply returning calls and messages from lawmakers.
“Mike McCartney (Ige’s chief of staff) even said in a hearing last week that he knows he is two weeks behind in returning messages,” the legislator complained.
All the legislators said they had concerns that the Ige administration is running a government that is unable to spend millions in appropriated federal funds and has a difficult time implementing computer and high-tech software upgrades….
read … Ige will face a tough crowd among former colleagues
HGEA Job Trust: 45 Years old Computers Churn out State Payroll
SA: Stacks upon stacks of stapled white and colored papers. Green-screened computers. An ancient mainframe. Just some of the tools used to churn out payroll for the state’s 70,000-plus employees..
When state Comptroller Doug Murdock first observed the archaic payroll system at work, he was amazed there have been no major hiccups in paying state workers.
“It was like I went back in time … I was seeing the kind of system I saw in the 1980s,” Murdock said of the 45-year-old technology.
The payroll process — part manual, part obsolete computer technology — involves a lot of legwork, paperwork, penciling and keyboarding.
“Trying to process their payroll by hand, basically, it’s a big job,” Murdock said. And it’s among a long list of the state’s computer systems in desperate need of overhaul….
read … No Kidding?
SB2297: Allow Counties to take Over Utilities via Eminent Domain
IM: Senate Bill (SB) 2297, authored by Senator Keith-Agaran, and co-authored by Senators Baker, Galuteria, Kidani, and Shimabukuro, was introduced on January 22, 2016.
For the most part the bill reiterates state law. (The underlined sections represent the proposed new sections of law)
Counties currently have the power of condemnation.
State law allows multiple utilities to operate on the same footprint. The last three chairs of the Public Utilities Commission have all publicly acknowledged this fact. Anyone can form a utility anywhere in the State, operate a microgrid, take customers from the existing utility, and be regulated as a utility under the Commission’s regulatory oversight.
“Each county shall have the power to exercise the power of condemnation by eminent domain when it is in the public interest to do so[;], including for the purpose of acquiring any property necessary to operate an electric utility for the production, conveyance, transmission, delivery, or furnishing of electric power.”
“Each county shall have the power to … Construct, purchase, take on lease, lease, sublease, or in any other manner acquire, manage, maintain, or dispose of … all buildings, lines, and other property required to operate an electric utility for the production, conveyance, transmission, delivery, or furnishing of electric power.”
Insiders Still Dreaming: PUC has huge challenge in crafting terms for sale of HECO to NextEra
read … SB2297
Maui News: County Has No Idea How to Run Utility
MN: In light of recent suggestions about how Maui's electrical grid should be run, we'd offer two suggestions:
1. Don't even think about a quasi-governmental or third-party takeover of the distribution of electricity.
2. Our utility should not be sold to any entity that doesn't believe a significant reduction in our electricity rates in the next five years is part of its plan.
To the first point: The top recommendation in the Guernsey report of appointing a consultant to oversee the distribution of electricity on Maui's power grid, which would be owned by Maui Electric Co. or some other entity, is a bad idea. That is simply building a bureaucracy. It is a layer that would have to be paid for, which would drive up rates for consumers. And you can bet that if government has any part in setting it up, it will be an expensive layer.
Suggestions that the county use eminent domain to seize Maui Electric's assets are equally off base - because the county may end up with assets it has no idea how to use and a business it has no idea how to run.
(Clue: There’s a huge difference between a Coop and a Municipally-owned utility. Coops work because only ratepayers have a vote, Munis fail because non rate payers will elect the same idiot politicians who will loot the utility to pay for pet projects in order to get themselves reelected.)
read … Pipe dreams about power
Puunene Mill will no longer provide power to the island's electric grid—may cause blackouts
MN: The power from the Puunene Mill is not expected to hurt MECO under normal circumstances, but it could pose a problem in emergencies….
The end of the purchase power agreement does not happen for 12 months, or until Jan. 6, 2017….
According to HC&S, the Puunene Mill sold 68,300 megawatt hours to MECO in 2010, or about 6 percent of the utility's total power generation. In that year, the mill produced 171,800 tons of raw sugar.
Under the purchase power agreement, Maui Electric can request up to 4 megawatts of scheduled energy during March through May, and October through December. HC&S also can provide up to 16 megawatts of immediate emergency power….
Although MECO officials said there were uncertainties, the agreement's termination "should have little to no effect on customer bills." (Translation: We can use this as an excuse to hike rates later.)
Anthem p68: “We saw a great painting on the wall over their heads, of the twenty illustrious men who had invented the candle.”
read … blackouts
State Seizes HC&S Water
MN: 10 streams to get 18 million gallons per day, but what about HC&S?
read … Just enough water left for condos
Anti-GMO activists endangering future of agriculture in Hawaii
KE: The Center for Food Safety, Babes Against Biotech, Earthjustice and Hawai‘i Alliance for Progressive Action have decided that GMOs are bad, so they’re busily drumming up fear, encouraging the gullible and ignorant to pester our politicians into imposing more regulations.
Though they’re targeting the seed crops, their actions affect a much broader swath of agriculture at a time when Hawaii is losing big independent farms, like Richard Ha’s Hamakua Springs, and its last sugar plantation.
Yet even as these anti- GMO activists assert that farm pesticides are harming islanders, they are curiously silent about the pest control and termite treatment companies that apply significantly more restricted-use pesticides than agriculture.
Why are they focusing so intently on agriculture, while ignoring other users, including homeowners who account for the overwhelming majority of pesticide poisonings?
Local residents and lawmakers need to understand that the Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice are mainland-based groups that are using Hawaii to wage their national campaign against GMO crops. Both groups make money from suing federal agencies over GMOs and frightening people into sending them donations.
Though Center for Food Safety and the Hawai’i Alliance for Progressive Action claim grassroots support, tax returns indicate the bulk of their funding comes from mainland foundations, not local donors.
Campaign filings also show some anti-GMO candidates have received backing from real estate interests that stand to greatly benefit from the collapse of ag in the islands….
Far too much legislative time has been wasted on a manufactured controversy that has divided our community solely to benefit the coffers and agenda of mainland advocacy groups and political demagogues.
It’s time to set our priorities straight and boost, not bash, agriculture.
read … Anti-GMO activists endangering future of agriculture in Hawaii
Barking dog law a sad sign of changing times on Kauai
Cataluna: Kauai now has a law to address the problem of barking dogs.
Dogs have barked on the island for decades. Roosters crow with impunity. Feral pigs snort around backyard mango trees at night. Cats yowl. Young men rev their big trucks. These are sounds of country living.
But Kauai is not country anymore. It is becoming something else; and in that transformation, patience, courtesy and tolerance have been worn away. Rather than deal with the unpleasantness of working through neighborly conflict, people contract it out to the county — pick up the trash, put out the fires, tell my neighbor to shut up his dog.
This barking law has been debated by the Kauai County Council since at least 2002.
It took nearly 14 years to get legislation in place that basically says the humane society can issue a warning to the owner of a dog that won’t shut up. Fourteen years of tortured debate resulting in a previous law that was enacted and then repealed before this new one stuck, plus volumes of overheated testimony, online comments and letters to the editor….
read … Sad Sign
Combine ax-grinding masquerading as science with poor reporting, and what do you get?
KE: Combine ax-grinding masquerading as science with poor reporting, and what do you get? A perfect storm of distorted information. Or to be more specific, today's article in The Garden Island about glyphosate (Roundup) in local honey.
It's a pattern we've seen play out repeatedly on Kauai, as activists use the crummy local newspaper to deliver a skewed message intended to generate paranoia while advancing an anti-ag cause.
read … Musings: Spun Honey
After Massive Rate Hikes, HMSA Now Refusing to Pay for X-Rays, CAT Scans
SA: Hawaii Medical Service Association is imposing a new pre-authorization requirement that doctors say is delaying critical imaging tests and resulting in harmful consequences for patients.
The state’s largest health insurer, with 720,000 members, is now requiring physicians to go through a third party on the mainland to approve diagnostic imaging exams including MRI scans and computerized tomography, or CT, scans, and certain cardiac-related procedures in an effort to reduce unnecessary costs. The new rules started on Dec. 1.
“Now HMSA routinely denies most heart and X-ray tests,” said Dr. Christopher Marsh, a Honolulu-based internal medicine physician, in a letter to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “They think or assume your doctor doesn’t know what he/she is doing, and is too stupid to competently order tests on you. Or is a criminal, gaming the system, and benefiting illegally from ordering tests.”
HMSA Claims: Preauthorization protects health, safety of HMSA members
read … Hike then cut
Wednesday is Deadline for Legislators to Introduce Bills
SA: Wednesday is the deadline for new bills to be introduced, so lawmakers are prepping proposals on everything from micro-apartments to genetically modified foods.
The women’s legislative caucus plans to introduce a package of bills on Thursday.
Also on Thursday, a Senate committee will discuss lowering the amount of blood alcohol content that’s legally allowed while driving.
Here’s a sampling of the bills that are being introduced or revived this year:
— DRIVING DRUNK — A senator wants to lower the threshold for driving under the influence of intoxicants to a blood-alcohol content of 0.06 percent of the driver’s blood, down from 0.08 percent.
— TINY HOMES — A bill seeks money to build tiny homes that would be no more than 220 square feet for one person, or 300 square feet for two people.
— SALARY CEILING — Employees of the University of Hawaii won’t be allowed to have a salary that’s more than double what the governor makes without approval of the Legislature under a bill introduced in the House.
— GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS — A number of proposals that seek labeling for genetically modified foods are being revived in the Senate.
read … Pandering
Bills: Campaign Spending, Ballots, Open Gov’t on the Agenda
CB: A slew of bills concerning campaign spending, elections and open government are set for hearings in two committees Tuesday.
In the morning, Senate Judiciary and Labor will hear measures submitted by the Office of Elections and the Campaign Spending Commission.
The bills increase from $1,000 to $10,000 the fine for providing false information when registering to vote late or at an absentee polling place, increase fines assessed against people other than individuals for campaign spending violations,and distinguish the “dissemination, distribution, and republication” of campaign materials from other coordinated activities.
Another measure says that the preparation of absentee ballots for counting may include opening the return envelope in which the ballot is enclosed and the validation of signatures, “but shall not include opening the ballot envelope.”
In the afternoon, House Judiciary has a couple of items on its agenda, ones that did not make it out of the last session and so carry over to the present….
read … Agenda
Hawaii Future Caucus Outlines Agenda
CB: Here’s what’s important to young lawmakers at the Hawaii Legislature and the Honolulu City Council this year:
- Creating an outline of state goals, timeline and funding mechanisms to revitalize the Kapalama area and develop affordable housing units with coordination between state and city agencies, private landowners and residents;
- Amending Hawaii’s tax increment financing law to provide the counties with the power to issue bonds to fund improvements made to specific communities. Bonds will be repaid through the increase in property tax assessments caused by improvements;
- Requiring state departments to offer 75 year leases for affordable housing developments;
- Implementing a tax on real estate investment trusts, with an exemption for affordable housing developments; and
- Increasing the cap on amounts deposited into the Rental Housing Revolving Fund to $100 million.
Those ideas were outlined Friday by members of the Hawaii Future Caucus, a bipartisan coalition of legislators under 35.
read … Future?
Ballot-Photo law to be reconsidered this legislative session
KHON: A little-known state law that addresses voting secrecy forbids voters from “exhibiting” a ballot after it has been marked. If you’re caught doing that, you will forfeit your right to vote.
According to HRS §11-137: “If any person having received a ballot leaves the polling place without first delivering the ballot to the precinct official as provided above, or wilfully exhibits the person’s ballot or the person’s unvoted ballots in a special primary or primary election, except as provided in section 11-139 and 11-132, after the ballot has been marked, the person shall forfeit the person’s right to vote, and the chairperson of the precinct officials shall cause a record to be made of the proceeding.”
The state law, which dates back more than 40 years and before the advent of social media and smartphones, is getting another look during this legislative session.
Rep. Karl Rhoads, the head of the House Judiciary Committee, said he’ll be proposing a new measure that would get rid of the “no-picture” rule.
read … Shell Bill?
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