SEC Freezes Code Rebel: Yet Another Hawaii High Tech Tax Credit Implosion
Global shipbuilding depression appears on horizon for 2017; what are implications for Jones Act shipbuilding?
Transient Oriented Schools: Impacting Housing Costs
Seven Political Parties on Hawaii Primary Ballot
Kouchi Tried Again and Again to Give $5M Deal to His Employer
SA: …Senate Resolution 46 asks the DLNR to begin talks with the owners of the Kapua makai lands with the goal of acquiring or leasing the Kapua lands in perpetuity. The measure was unanimously approved Wednesday by the Senate Committee on Water, Land and Agriculture, and then approved by the full Senate on Thursday.
Hawaii developers Kevin M. Showe and Jeffrey R. Stone each have an ownership interest in the South Kona lands, an area where Kahele’s family lived when he was a child. Kahele (D, Hilo) for years had wanted the state to buy the property and signed a bill the night before he died in January to authorize the state to negotiate to acquire the land.
Showe is the former employer and former investment partner of Senate President Ron Kouchi, and the proposed South Kona purchase is one of two items senators considered this year that are linked to Showe’s business interests.
In addition to the proposed Kapua deal, senators also inserted language into the Senate draft of the state budget bill this year to provide $5 million to Kauai County to buy a Kauai apartment complex called the Courtyards at Waipouli that is owned by one of Showe’s companies….
Kouchi, who was appointed to the state Senate in 2010 and became Senate president last year, has done business with Showe for years. Kouchi has invested with Showe, and worked for at least seven years for Showe’s companies as a community relations representative, according to state and county records….
SB 2036, providing money for the Waipouli purchase, died in the Ways and Means Committee in February, but an appropriation to enable Kauai County to purchase Waipouli then appeared in the Senate draft of the state budget that was made public in early April. (Somebody defied the President.)
State Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, who compiles the Senate version of the construction budget, said Kouchi did not instruct him to include the money for Courtyards at Waipouli in the Senate draft of the budget. (Translation: Kouchi gave him all the clues he needed to know what was wanted.)
Dela Cruz (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore-Mililani Mauka) said he and Kouchi discussed “housing as an issue, yes,” adding, “What projects go in, no. He never told me point-blank ‘Put this in.’” (Translation: He said housing is an issue and pointed to this project. I knew what he meant.)
The Waipouli item was eventually removed from the final version of the state budget that House and Senate lawmakers approved Tuesday.
Del Cruz said the Waipouli appropriation was deleted from the budget after officials with the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp. told lawmakers the agency would prefer to fund another Kauai affordable housing project instead of Waipouli…. (Somebody defied the President.)
read … Another $5M for the Cronies
TMT contested-case choice could doom process again
Shapiro: The state Department of Land and Natural Resources is giving us an ominous sense of Yogi Berra’s “deja vu all over again” as it stumbles through a second attempt at contested case hearings for the much-disputed Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea.
The state Supreme Court voided TMT’s initial permit after finding the state “put the cart before the horse” by issuing the permit before settling the contested case filing by Native Hawaiians and other telescope foes.
So what did the Board of Land and Natural Resources do after being ordered by the court to redo the contested case process?
It appeared to put the cart before the horse again by starting the search for a hearings officer without providing public notice and input opportunity that TMT opponents say is required by the state Sunshine Law….
Yes, opponents will object to everything to try to delay the case after TMT said it will pursue a site out of Hawaii unless it has a permit to build on Mauna Kea by the end of the year.
But the reality facing BLNR is the Supreme Court made clear it’ll be a stickler for details; instead of making it easy for opponents, BLNR should be scrupulous and transparent in following the letter and spirit of the law.
Amano didn’t initially disclose her ‘Imiloa membership, claiming she was unaware of the astronomy center’s affiliation with UH-Hilo.
That’s hard to swallow.
read … Doomed
Look over measures that failed or passed at Capitol
SA: PDF: How Major Bills Fared at the Capitol
read … Failed or Passed
5 bills that change the business of health and hospitals in Hawaii
PBN: Lawmakers ended their 2016 session Thursday. Here's what Greene had to say about the health-related bills headed to Gov. David Ige for his signature.
- Nursing home facilities are getting a financial break. House Bill 1934 authorized the first increase for inflation for nursing homes since eight years ago….
- …Senate Bill 2076 establishes a Hawaii license program for durable medical equipment providers and sets service standards, such as a toll-free phone line for Hawaii residents to access such services even if it’s after hours on the Mainland. The measure is paid for by licensing fees….
- …Senate Bill 2330 reauthorized the hospital sustainability program for the fifth year, appropriating $65 million to Hawaii hospitals to assist them with uncompensated care costs related to Medicaid and uninsured patients. Thanks to the program, Hawaii hospitals had net revenues totaling $40 million, but uncompensated costs are still one of the biggest challenges hospitals face, contributing to $60 million in losses last year. Government reimbursements have risen from about 70 cents to 83 cents for every dollar expended on care. “This is the program that allows Wahiawa General Hospital to keep its doors open,” he said….
- Access to telehealth services for Medicaid and commercial insurance patients is expanded though Senate Bill 2395, which creates payment parity.
- Prescription drug cost relief could be around the corner, too. House Bill 254 will allow hospitals to substitute cheaper but biosimilar drugs ….
read … 5 Bills
High Tech Tax Credit Scammers Get ‘Only’ $1M
PBN: The Hawaii Strategic Development Corp.’s request for $5 million to support Hawaii’s high tech industry through the HI Growth Initiative failed to win approval from the state Legislature this year.
However, lawmakers then announced $1 million for the initiative would be included in the state budget bill, which won final passage Tuesday and awaits Gov. David Ige’s signature….
read … Corporate Welfare
SD13 Open, HD29 Open—Karl Rhoads Running for State Senate
CB: …The day after a longtime state senator announced she would not seek re-election, an influential House representative says he’s running to replace her.
Karl Rhoads, chair of the House Judiciary committee, said Saturday that he will seek the Senate District 13 seat that represents Liliha, Palama, Iwilei, Kalihi, Nuuanu, Pacific Heights, Pauoa, Lower Tantalus and Downtown….
Cataluna: Voters have the final word on grade legislators merit
Thanks to Sierra Club, Koa Ridge Houses will Cost $700K – $900K
PBN: For Harry Saunders, the more than 15 years it’s taken Castle & Cooke Hawaii to get its 3,500-home Koa Ridge master-planned community approved have been frustrating — to say the least.
“In many ways, it defies logic, because at the same time, why do we have homeless? Why is the cost of housing so high? We’ve got to have a study as to why?” said Saunders, president of Castle & Cooke Hawaii Inc. “We’re not building enough homes, period. And [these projects] don’t get approved and it costs millions to get them approved.” ….
…the long delay means Koa Ridge will be much costlier — to the developer and to buyers — than originally planned.
Saunders, who sat down with PBN in a recent exclusive interview following the project’s final clearance last month by the Hawaii Supreme Court, said the average price of a single-family home at Koa Ridge has more than doubled over the past 10 years to more than $700,000, mainly because of the steady rise in construction costs.
That can be seen in the statistics reported by the Honolulu Board of Realtors. The median price of a single-family home on Oahu in 2002 was $335,000, which, adjusted for inflation, would be $443,436 in 2016 dollars. The median price in March for that same single-family house was $725,000, an increase of 63 percent….
70% 'Yes' -- Have the delays on approving Koa Ridge made the project unaffordable for average homebuyers?
PBN: Hawaii's housing shortage
read … Thanks to Sierra Club
State to explore utility Co-op options
HTH: The state Energy Office is being given $1.2 million to study various utility models, including public and private options.
Lawmakers included the funding in the 2016-17 budget sent to Gov. David Ige on Tuesday.
The fiscal document says the office will use the funds to evaluate “alternative utility and regulatory models including … cooperative, municipal and independent distribution system operators.”
An Energy Office spokesman said there is no deadline for completing the analysis, but it is expected to be finished by the next legislative session.
“Our first step will be to undertake a full and comprehensive scoping of what can realistically be achieved given the budget and direction of the Legislature,” said Mark Glick, Energy Office administrator, in an email.
“Part of this scoping effort will be identifying opportunities to leverage resources through our relationships at the state and federal level so we can fully explore what utility and regulatory structures can best help Hawaii meet its energy policy and deployment objectives.”
The funding comes as regulators mull a proposed sale of Hawaiian Electric to Florida-based NextEra Energy Inc., and while a group called the Hawaii Island Energy Cooperative pushes for a publicly owned alternative.
Kauai, which has an energy cooperative, is the only island with a utility not owned by Hawaiian Electric.
Marco Mangelsdorf, spokesman for HIEC, referred to the study as “definitely a good thing.”
“All the talk of getting to 100 percent renewable in power generation will require more than rhetorical support, so this is an important step,” he added….
read … State to explore utility options
LNG: Green Energy Profiteers Order Minions to Protest Planned Reduction in Electric Bills
IM: On May 2, Hawai`i Gas signed a contract with T Boone Pickens`s oil company to import Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).
On Friday, May 13 activists will protest the importing of LNG into Hawai'i. The action will occur at the Hawaii Gas corporate offices at the Topa Financial Center, 745 Fort Street Mall from 3-5 p.m.
Pickens asserted that fracking “isn’t gonna hurt anybody. The environmentalists, they moan and groan about it, but when you get down to it, fracking is two miles down below the surface, you’re not gonna damage anything.” …. (Yes, but lower electric bills caused by LNG make batteries, solar leasing, wind farms and other scams harder to peddle.)
Hermina Morita noted that the real reason to build LNG infrastructure is because of its long-term benefit to the transportation sector….
Reality, for those few who think for themselves: CO2 Emissions Dropped In 47 States Due To Natural Gas
read … Keep Electricity Expensive
HECO: Wind, Solar Means More Blackouts
SA: The probability that one of Hawaiian Electric Co.’s 17 generating units will be down for maintenance at any given time tripled in the past seven years as the fossil fuel-fired units age and struggle to compensate for the variable power produced by renewable energy.
HECO’s generating units are between 35 and 69 years old, not including the Campbell Industrial Park combustion turbine installed in 2009. The aging units require frequent and longer repairs, HECO said, which lead to a loss of reserve capacity on the grid.
“As the generating units age, they will need to be maintained more often and for longer periods of time,” HECO said in its annual Adequacy of Generation report. “Outages for planned work and maintenance will continue to be more numerous and longer in duration than in previous years.”
The added operating stress from renewable energy has caused more problems for reliability, as the old generating units struggle to ramp up and slow down more often to match the flows of solar and wind power.
The added strain can lead to outages. (This will become a selling point for batteries, LOL!)
“The generating units operate harder to counteract the increasingly dynamic changes, which increase the likelihood of unscheduled outages,” HECO said in the report filed with the Public Utilities Commission.
Issues with reliability might get worse for HECO, as the utility said it expects it will not have the necessary reserve capacity after 2018.
“Hawaiian Electric’s reserve capacity, which does not include intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar, may not be sufficient to meet the company’s generating system reliability guideline … in 2018 and beyond,” the utility said in the report.
In 2015 the probability that HECO’s generating units will not meet demand tripled from 2009.
“Right now the risk is all random in nature. It is a little like playing roulette,” said Matthias Fripp, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Every day you simply spin the wheel and hope you don’t get double zero and lose two plants. This is an emergency and a rare event, but it is becoming less rare and we don’t have a lot of resources to respond to it.” ….
PBN: Alexander & Baldwin invests $13.5M in Hawaii solar energy farms
read … A surprise only for the ignorant
Trump, Clinton, Sanders United Against Federal Land Transfers to States
AP: Donald Trump's apparent lock on the Republican presidential nomination means advocates of large-scale transfers of federal lands to states in the West likely won't find support in the White House regardless of who wins election this November.
Neither Trump nor Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders favor the wholesale transfers of federal lands, according to advisers and the candidates' prior statements.
However, chief policy adviser Sam Clovis said Trump does want to see policy changes that give states and local governments more say in land management.
"All of us involved in the campaign believe in conserving the property," Clovis said. "But there are also uses for the property that can benefit all concerned and benefit the common good, which is essentially what we need to do."
Trump supports "shared governance" of federal lands between federal agencies and state and local governments in many circumstances, Clovis said. Under such management, he said state and local government would benefit from better access to minerals on federal lands and would retain revenues coming off the properties above what's required for maintenance of the land.
"The whole federal land issue is one where we can preserve the sportsmen's access to that land, we can preserve grazing land, and at the same time we can get to a shared governance structure on other aspects of that where state and local governments can benefit from access to minerals, from access to other things," Clovis said.
In instances where growing cities are hemmed in by federal lands, Clovis said Trump supports easing the transfer of federal lands to state and local governments to allow development.
Trump supports the transfer to local and state government when it is appropriate and when proper stewardship is guaranteed, Clovis said, adding "Congress needs to get on board with that."
Clinton and Sanders, meanwhile, are both on-record opposing transfers of federal lands to the states….
read … Deflate
Fukumoto-Chang: “In Hawaii we stand for something different”
Borreca: …Willes Lee, the former Hawaii GOP chairman, now heads the local Ted Cruz for President campaign and will go the the national convention as a Cruz delegate, even though his candidate has put his campaign on hold. Lee admits the GOP campaign to elect Trump will be difficult, adding that the Democrats also will have trouble winning with Hillary Clinton….
“He must convince conservatives that he will govern using conservative principles, and convince other sensible people he is not the ‘insert whatever you want’ that he has ‘played’ during the primary,” Lee said….
The GOP House leader, Rep. Beth Fukumoto Chang, said she doesn’t think Trump is a good candidate and doesn’t represent the values of the GOP.
“It is impossible to forget or ignore what he said about Japanese-Americans, Muslims and women,” Fukumoto Chang said in an interview.
She added that she thinks the party should reexamine whether Trump “at the end of the day will be our leader.”
By including Trump in the call for GOP unity, the GOP’s name is being hurt, Fukumoto Chang said.
“I think the only way we can combat what he is doing to our reputation is to openly voice our opposition,” she said. “We have to stand up and say in Hawaii we stand for something different.” ….
AP: Trump: 'Taxes for the rich will go up somewhat'
read … Look Who is United Against Trump
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