GEMS: Electric Ratepayers Pay Millions for Nothing
Full Text: State of the State Address
Republicans on State of the State: 5 Things We Can Agree On, 5 Areas for Improvement
Jones Act: “Diffuse costs and concentrated benefits”
Video: Budget or Bust
UH Cancer Center: E-Cigs are Cutting Deep into our Tobacco Tax Revenue—So We’re Hitting Back
Busted: Hawaii Tax Credit Scammers Caught Lying About Failure Rate of Their Fake ‘Startup’ Companies
CB: …Blue Startups says that it’s funded 47 companies and only six are out of business, for a survivability rate of 87 percent.
Through Blue Startups’ own cohort listings, various blog posts, articles, and its Wikipedia entry, I counted a total of 48 teams that were announced as entering its accelerator since day one (some teams either combined or were listed in more than one cohort).
Note the difference there: “funded” versus “announced as entering its program.” Also note that a few of those who entered — Mined, Doctory and others — have been deleted from Blue Startups’ cohort pages, but I included them anyway. Sure, they may have failed during the program, been kicked out, walked away on their own, or not “graduated” for another reason. However, they were an “input” so I’m counting them in the success/fail ratios.
Of those 48 incoming startups, 31 are still operating, meaning 17 are “not operating.” (Translation: As usual Hawaii’s Hi-Tech scammers are lying to score more of your tax dollars.)
To put both of these numbers (the real number 65% and the fake number 87%) into perspective, a 2014 article has Techstars’ active rate of graduates over its previous eight years as 78 percent. The same article puts Y Combinator’s active rate over eight years as 68 percent. 500 Startups’ active rate is estimated at about 66 percent over 550 startups since 2010. (Six years)
Blue Startups’ success rate is (would be) good in comparison, but it’s only been around about for three years.
“Failure is normal,” Fooks said. (And we do it faster than most.)
read … Liars
Rail operations will raise taxes 9%—$90M per Year Forever
SA: It was a short answer to a loaded question: How much will rail operations and maintenance cost Oahu property owners in taxes?
The response was that broadly speaking and “using today’s numbers,” property taxpayers can expect to see a 9 percent increase in rates to subsidize annual operational costs for the 20-mile rail system when it comes online in late 2021.
The 90-second exchange on Jan. 13 between City Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi and city Deputy Budget Director Gary Kurokawa was overshadowed by more immediate news that day. The Council Budget Committee had voted 4-1 to give its final approval to Bill 22 (2015), extending the contentious 0.5 percent Oahu surcharge on the general excise tax for five more years — setting the stage for a final vote by the full Council on Wednesday.
The estimate was based on the Honolulu Authority for Rail Transportation’s own early estimates that operations and maintenance would cost $120 million annually with a return at the fare box of 30 percent.
Assuming no other sources of revenue, Kurokawa told the Budget Committee, that would leave a $90 million shortfall for rail each year. This year’s expected property tax take is approximately $1 billion, he said, “so if you need to raise $90 million a year, that would make a 9 percent increase … in the overall property taxes.”
Rail supporters (who have been wrong again and again) say the 9 percent figure is a worst-case scenario and doesn’t factor in a number of variables. But skeptics (who have been proven right in their projections of rail budget shortfalls) say 9 percent won’t be enough and that the annual tab will be much higher.
Jan 12: Rail Operating Subsidy will Require 9% Property Tax Hike
read … Rail operations will raise taxes 9%, officials say
Supreme Court Rejects Kam Schools Effort to Suppress Evidence in Other Child Molestation Case
SA: The Hawaii Supreme Court has rejected Kamehameha Schools’ request to block a judge’s order to turn over evidence trust officials gathered in their own investigation of a former teacher charged with using a hidden camera to record students showering in his apartment.
Kamehameha Schools spokesman Kekoa Paulsen said, “We are reviewing the court’s ruling and will be evaluating our next steps.”
The Supreme Court rejected the educational trust’s appeal Thursday.
Former Kapalama campus speech teacher and debate team coach Gabriel Alisna is awaiting trial in state court on charges of violating the privacy of three students and fondling one of them. The trial is scheduled for June….
read … Justices reject trust’s appeal of judge’s order
State of the State: Illusions, Unspent Money, and Zero
Borreca: …At a news conference after the speech, Ige was asked what is $100 million going to do when the DOE has estimated that air conditioners in all the schools would cost $1.7 billion. The short answer is: We aren’t air-conditioning all the schools, we are putting in all sorts of lights, vents, pipes, repainted roofs and maybe fans.
“Obviously there is lot of infrastructure to upgrade the existing facilities. But if you include energy-saving devices and then the air conditioning, you eliminate a lot of the electrical upgrades which are a huge cost,” Ige said.
The catch is, “It is about being smart and the program only works if you make the commitment to reduce energy demand.”
To be precise, Ige clarified that this is not an air-condition-the-schools project, it is “a heat-abatement program.”
If upon examination, chilling the schools appears somewhat less than revolutionary, some of the other hallmarks of Ige’s speech, such as rebuilding the Hawaii State Hospital in Kaneohe, may be just illusionary….
During committee hearings this year, Luke already said the project has been funded and on the books for years, so the state has until the end of this legislative session to start demolition or the funding is gone.
Sen. Jill Tokuda, chairwoman of the Ways and Means Committee, reminded reporters Monday that demolition money was appropriated two years ago “and it is still not done.”
If there was a hardy legislative perennial in Ige’s speech, it was another round of tearing down, replanning, studying or just do something with the Oahu Community Correctional Center, which the state has been wanting to tear down since at least 2001. Ige added his name to a list of Hawaii governors who have said “something must be done.”
The list of governors who actually did something with the prison system remains at zero….
read … Zero
State of the State: Ige Snatches Abercombie’s GEMS
KITV: With the record temperatures we saw last year, cooling 1000 classrooms sounds great but make no mistake, that doesn't mean air conditioning all of them.
The governor wants to use $100 million from a Green Energy program—(GEMS) that was created to help homeowners tap into solar-- to look at ways to make our schools more energy efficient-- from adding vents and changing lights to then determine if air conditioning is the answer….
The governor has proposed $30 million in his budget for air-conditioning, but it's not clear how far that will go….
"It wasn't clear how he is going to pay for the infrastructure, how is he going about the community process. It wasn't clear how its going to look different from Kakaako," said Minority leader Rep. Beth Fukumoto.
Senate president Ron Kouchi was disappointed the governor didn't propose expanding preschools although others point out he is funding programs in his budget.
The governor also did not address funding for Hawaiian Homelands even thought a very visible crowd in the audience made their views known….
"Can the Department of Hawaiian Homelands look at other kinds of projects like high rise projects or low-income rentals those kinds of options that serve their beneficiaries as well," said House Majority Leader Scott Saiki.
read … Lawmakers agree on Governor’s priorities but want to see details
Progress? Ige Touts DoH Ability to Spend Money
SA: One tidbit of progress shared by Gov. David Ige in his State of the State address Monday was news that our Health Department is doing a better job in using federal dollars allocated for the Drinking Water Fund….
It’s good to hear that government can, indeed, become more efficient. Let’s just hope that efficiency didn’t come at the expense, literally, of more OT.
read … Look at us. We can spend!
Hawaii Senator Wins Residency Appeal
CB: Sen. Brickwood Galuteria convinced the Oahu Board of Registration that he spends 60 percent of his nights on a pull-out bed in a one-bedroom Kakaako apartment he shares with his wife and his mother….
read … They’ll Believe Anything
World’s Most Expensive Resort Ever To Be Built In Hawaii For $2 Billion by Jeff Stone
JBN: A deal that would see the most expensive holiday resort ever built is close to being completed. The estimated cost is to be more than $2 billion. Atlantis Resorts, a subsidiary of Kerzner International Resorts, is in the final stages of a securing plans to construct one of its renowned ocean-themed resorts in Hawaii.
Ko Olina Developer Jeff Stone announced the project over a decade ago in the governor’s office with landowner billionaire Takeshi Sekiguchi.
The resort will reportedly cover a 15-acre expanse of land on the Diamond Head side of Disney’s Aulani Resort, and will apparently bear resemblance to one of Atlantis’ other resorts The Palm in Dubai….
Oddly, it still has to go through permitting and regulatory processes before construction can start….
read … Jeff Stone
Boom Over? The same thing happened in the last building booms. Each condo project sold fast, until one didn't
KHON: Not at first: more than 100 people reserved units almost immediately. Then sales slowed, leaving a larger number of units unsold. At the same time, construction costs rose 13 percent in two years. The same thing happened in the last building booms. Each condo project sold fast, until one didn't….
read … Boom Over
Humpback: DLNR Opposes Federal Grab for Control of Hawaii Waters
KGI:The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whales National Marine Sanctuary expansion plan will be discussed at the sanctuary’s advisory council meeting today.
But a Jan. 22 letter from Suzanne Case, chairperson for Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources, was a tell for how the meeting might shake out.
“As the trustee of Hawaii’s natural resources, cultural resources, and submerged lands, the State of Hawaii supports an ecosystem-based management approach, but cannot endorse federal jurisdiction or enforcement of Hawaiian waters at this scale,” says the letter sent to John Armor, acting director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Case wrote that the DLNR “continues to believe that the Sanctuary should focus on complementing existing state functions and supporting existing management efforts of communities, non-government organizations, partner agencies, and other institutions rather than duplicating existing regulatory authority and programmatic efforts.”
The letter addresses the proposed expansion, made public in March, that would add 235 square miles of state and federal waters around Oahu, Kauai and Niihau, bringing the total area to 1,601 square miles.
Case wrote that the “this letter serves to confirm our agreement that the”Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary will continue in its current form.”
read … State Says ‘No’
County Mayors Are Back With A Familiar Request — More Tax Money
CB: This year, the counties are backed at the Legislature by a working group’s recommendation that calls for eliminating TAT revenue cap….
read … Mo Money
Souki Introduces Lottery Bill
CB: House Bill 1830 authorizes the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to license a single operator for a lottery, including keno….
The bill’s backers include Vice Speaker John Mizuno and Finance Chair Sylvia Luke.
Mizuno said Sen. Will Espero plans to introduce a similar measure on the other side of the Capitol….
read … Lottery
Lawmaker proposes Bellagio-like fountains at State Capitol
KHON: …That’s how at least one lawmaker sees it and he’s introduced House Bill 1988 to make it happen.
Rep. Romy Cachola says the state should spend the money to turn the reflecting pool surrounding the State Capitol into dancing fountains with bright lights and music.
He says it will actually save money in the long run, because in addition to making the Capitol a tourist attraction, it will also help clean up the pond, which the state spends a lot of money on every year.
Cachola says it would be similar to the dancing fountains at Bellagio hotel and casino in Las Vegas….
read … Giant Casino
Privatizing Building Permits
HB: It’s no secret that Hawaii is a bit, shall we say, constipated when it comes to building permits. Permits can take six months or more.
A 2013 study conducted by the National Association of Home Builders found the median time it took to get a plan review for a typical single-family home in the U.S. was 1.4 weeks. If it took longer, the main reasons listed were “Standard practice in my area for it to take that long,” “Staff cutbacks” or “Internal red tape/communication problems within the local building department.” These may sound familiar.
read … Privitize
Bill would let Hawaii pharmacists prescribe birth control
WHT: California and Oregon have passed similar laws, so we have to join a mob of States.
read … Control
Death Panels: HMSA Proves Sarah Palin Right
SA: As Sarah Palin stated, death panels are here. She was right — although it’s not the government, but the insurance companies.
Hawaii Medical Service Association is now making a “death panel” for doctors and patients to seek permission to have procedures, including MRIs (“Not what the doctor ordered,” Star-Advertiser, Jan. 24). Some with heart conditions will have to sit by and wait weeks or months for this permission, to save money for HMSA.
I am waiting for the first person to die waiting, and I hope to be on the jury that awards significant damages against HMSA….
read … Waiting
HGEA and UPW Order Legislators to Raise Questions about HHSC long-term care facilities
HTH: East Hawaii administrators for Hawaii Health Systems Corp. say they are continuing to review changes to their long-term care services following a public grilling last week by state Rep. Richard Onishi, D-Hilo (on behalf of his bosses at UPW and HGEA.).
During a joint informational briefing for the Senate Committee on Ways and Means and the House Committee on Finance on Thursday, Onishi questioned HHSC East Hawaii Regional CEO Dan Brinkman about recent cuts in long-term care offerings and the need to send patients to far-flung facilities in Ka‘u and Hamakua, thereby increasing the burden on families wanting to visit their loved ones.
Administrators announced in the fall they would be reducing (HGEA/UPW) staff for 90 long-term care beds to levels needed to maintain 70 beds, among other cost-saving measures, to meet a predicted budget shortfall.
“Since then, you’ve now reduced it to 52,” Onishi said to Brinkman at Thursday’s meeting.
The CEO explained that the hospital system continues to maintain (HGEA/UPW) staffing levels for 70 beds, “but by changing our admissions process, meaning that we encourage people to go elsewhere if they can afford to and we only take people when they have nowhere else to go, which is part of our mission, what we found is our census has gradually decreased to 52,” he said.
Brinkman said sending those patients to alternative providers is an important part of the hospital system’s cost-saving measures because “even if they pay, we still lose significant dollars on every one of those residents because of the age of the facility, and our reimbursement levels don’t cover the cost of providing that service (with HGEA and UPW members and their work rules).”
The Cost: Hospital Crisis: How to Use Union Work Rules for Fun and Profit
read … Questions raised about long-term care facilities
New bill proposes lowering blood-alcohol-content levels in Hawaii
KITV: One drink, and you could be done -- over the limit and in serious trouble.
One Hawaii lawmaker wants to impose a DUI game-changer, lowering the limit below the .08 blood alcohol percentage used in all 50 states.
“By decreasing the threshold to .06, people should understand, do not drive.” Said Senator, Josh Green….
read … Going to 0.00%?
Bullying Professors Scream Racism (again) at UH Manoa
HNN: In a very rare (typical) move, the (usual suspects on the) University of Hawaii Manoa Faculty Senate has overwhelmingly approved a vote of no-confidence against UH Manoa Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Reed Dasenbrock, who's the focus of a hostile workplace complaint.
Dasenbrock has maintained he's done nothing wrong.
When Hawaii News Now first broke news of the complaints against him last May, Dasenbrock said, "I do not harass people through the grievance process. I do not bully people. I am not a racist. I don't treat women differently from men. My record stands for itself."
The university has nearly completed a nine-month investigation into the charges, according to UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl.
"There were more than 40 people who were interviewed and re-interviewed, including the 22 people who filed the complaint. And it was a lengthy process but it was a very detailed. We wanted to make sure it was very thorough," Meisenzahl said.
Because UH Manoa Chancellor Robert Bly-Vroman was present at some meetings in which Dasenbrock was accused of creating a hostile work environment he has recused himself from the case, Meisenzahl said.
UH President David Lassner has asked former UH Chief Academic Officer Linda Johnsrud, now a top administrator in the University of Texas system, to decide on any violations and punishment.
"I think in the interest of making sure that this is a fair and unbiased process, that's why they thought that it would be best to go outside the university for the actual decision maker," Meisenzahl said. "There's a man's career here that we're talking about and there are people who feel like they have been wronged and I think all sides have to be served."
The final report on this case -- which has thousands of pages of witness statements and interviews --- should be sent to Johnsrud in Texas to make a decision in about two weeks, he said. (Did they say ‘thousands’?)
Johnsrud is performing the service free of charge, Meisenzahl added….
read … Wash Rinse Repeat
Number of abused kids in Hawaii up slightly
HNN: The number of victimized or abused children in Hawaii rose slightly in 2014, but is down by nearly 24 percent from five years earlier, according to a federal report released Monday.
The report showed that there were 1,331 Hawaii children who were abused in 2014, up by seven from the year before.
In 2010, however, the state intervened on behalf of 1,744 children who were abused.
Nationally, 702,208 children were abused in 2014, up nearly 3 percent from the year before, according to the report released Monday by the state Department of Health and Human Services.
The increase is spurring concern among child welfare advocates, who say more needs to be done to address child abuse.
To see the full report, click here.
read … Maltreatment
Airport Ceiling Collapse Generates $900K Contract
ILind: Here’s another airport item that turned up in a list of recent state contracts exempted from the general requirement for competitive bidding due to an “emergency situation that created a threat to life, public health, welfare or safety.”
On October 21, 2015, several sections of the third floor ceilings at Gates 33 and 34 collapsed “due to roof leaks and extremely heavy condensation on the air conditioning (AC) ducts,” according to a request for emergency procurement submitted by airports’ Engineering Branch. And the moisture also created a potential mold issue ” There is a possible mold issue “on the remaining ceiling tiles and plaster soffits.”
read … More airport woes
Criminal Lunatic Escapes Again—Recaptured by Police
KHON: The 38-year-old escaped from Hawaii State Hospital on Saturday, Jan. 23, at approximately 6:40 p.m., and is considered dangerous.
Authorities say Leibman walked out of an unlocked door while the staff was in the process of transitioning another patient (or calculating their overtime). The staff chased him but lost sight when he entered the heavy brush area.
“He does have some mental health issues, so we know that is a factor and maybe one of the reasons, but he is court ordered to the hospital, so this is considered an escape, because of his court order,” said Sgt. Kim Buffett of CrimeStoppers.
This is not the first time Leibman has been reported missing.
Police captured Leibman nearly one year ago, after he had been on the run for more than two months.
Court records showed Leibman failed to show up for his status hearing at Lihue District Court on Dec. 4, 2014.
According to Kauai police, he had escaped from Kahi Mohala, a mental health facility on Oahu.
read … Thanks HGEA
UH researchers say Hawaii wildfires strongly linked to Abandonment of Ag Lands
HNN: …The authors showed that human activities have also dramatically increased the "flammability" of Hawaii's landscapes through the spread and establishment of fire-prone, nonnative grasses.
This includes the introduction of these species for pastures and as ornamental plants, a legacy of deforestation for ranching and plantations, and, most recently, the widespread abandonment of agricultural lands….
read … Wildfires Replace Cane Fires
Obama Admin Gives HCDA Money for Local Food Production … in Kakaako
EPA: …“Local Foods, Local Places helps people access healthy local food and supports new businesses in neighborhoods that need investment,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “The program is good for the environment, public health and the economy. By helping bring healthy local food to market and offering new walking and biking options, Local Foods, Local Places can help improve air quality, support local economies, and protect undeveloped green space.” …
The Hawaii Community Development Authority in Honolulu, Hawaii, plans to identify food-based projects that will spur greater investment and stewardship in the Kakaako Makai community, improve returns on local food production, integrate food security initiatives with community and transit-oriented development planning, and reduce stormwater runoff and vulnerability to sea level rise….
read … Kakaako?
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