Trask: Coco Palms Occupiers Duped by White Supremacist ‘Sovereign Citizens’
Akana: Some OHA LLCs Created Secretly
State Audit of OHA is just the tip of the iceberg
Assisted Suicide Bill Now in Senate
Groundhog Day in the Hawaii Senate
KIUC Board Election Results
Lawmakers seek $119M in tax increases despite booming collections
SA: …Among the tax changes lawmakers are considering this year are increases in the state conveyance tax to provide money to develop affordable housing, and changes in the state tax code in connection with the federal Tax Cut & Jobs Act that could provide a financial windfall to the state.
Lawmakers also are considering a tax increase on real estate investment trusts, which own some of the most glamorous and pricey commercial properties in Hawaii, and have proposed a tax on the resort fees that hotels charge their guests separate from room rates….
Some major tax bills moving through the Legislature:
HB 2702 >> Would impose state income tax on shareholders of Real Estate Investment Trusts including those who live out of state >> Revenue yearly: $30 million
HB 1655 >> Would require out-of-state online retailers that make sales in Hawaii to collect Hawaii excise taxes and remit them to the state >> Revenue yearly: $6 million
SB 2489 >> Would increase the amount of transient accommodations taxes collected from timeshares >> Revenue next year: $20.2 million
SB 2699 >> Would impose the transient accommodations tax on hotel resort fees that are calculated separately from the advertised short-term rental rate (similar House proposal in HB 2432) >> $19.4 million
SB 508 >> Would increase the tax withholding on profits from Hawaii real estate that is sold by non-residents >> Revenue next year: $14.4 million
SB 2963 >> Would establish a process for online platforms to collect and remit to the state the transient accommodations tax on short-term rentals
>> Revenue next year: $10 million
SB 2821 >> Would adjust Hawaii tax laws to conform to some — but not all — of the technical changes in federal tax law under the Tax Cut & Jobs Act >> Revenue next year: $9.2 million
SB 2415 >> Would increase the state conveyance tax rate on residential investment properties worth more than $2 million >> Revenue next year: $8.6 million
SB 2484 >> Would increase Hawaii estate taxes on estates valued at more than $10 million >> Revenue next year: $900,000
read … Lawmakers seek tax increases despite booming collections
Maunakea committee shrouded in anonymity
HTH: …Mayor Harry Kim says his Maunakea committee, tasked with proposing a new management model for the mountain, met for the first time Friday.
He said the meeting with the nine-member group lasted more than three hours, and the committee will next draft a charter to state its duties.
“They want a charter to define what their mission and responsibilities are,” said Kim, who drafted his own vision statement.
But he declined to identify the members because he said they don’t want to be named until the statement is finished, which could take a couple of weeks.
“Once that is done and they agree to it,” Kim said, referring to the charter, “then they are willing to put their names on it.”
He said each member is from Hawaii Island and has a “history of involvement, scholarly, professionally or personally, in regards to the Hawaiian culture.”…
UH has a master lease for the Maunakea Science Reserve through 2033, and is in the process of seeking a new lease.
Meetings on the proposal will take place from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Monday at the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands office in Waimea and Tuesday at the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo….
The Legislature also is mulling management issues.
On Thursday, the state House of Representatives passed on first reading a bill creating a new Maunakea management authority. The bill, which has received hundreds of pages of opposing testimony, passed the Senate on Tuesday.
It will be heard next by the House Finance Committee….
While a handful of people submitted testimony in favor of the bill, the measure has received a mountain of criticism from astronomers, state agencies and Hawaiian cultural practitioners alike.
Under the measure, a paid seven-member board appointed by the governor, which would include cultural experts, an astronomer and environmental expert, would run the authority. Four members would have to be from Hawaii Island. It also limits the number of telescopes….
Walter Ritte, a Hawaiian activist from Molokai, said in testimony that he supports it because a new management team would set a “new norm on how issues such as the TMT can and will be treated in the future so as to avoid such lose-lose conflicts.”…
Kahele is hosting meetings around the state regarding the bill….Meetings will be held from 6-8 p.m. March 20 at the Kanu O Ka ‘Aina Learning Center in Waimea; 7-9 p.m. March 21 at Keaukaha Elementary School cafeteria; and 6-8 p.m. April 2 at the West Hawaii Civic Center in Kailua-Kona….
Cataluna: Bill offers compromise in clash over Mauna Kea
read … Maunakea committee shrouded in anonymity
DoE Teams with Democrat Women’s March to Push Anti-Gun Rallies At Least 20 Schools
HTH: …The protest is championed under the Women’s March Youth EMPOWER organization. (In partnership with TEENVogue Magazine.) It’s slated to begin at 10 a.m. across all time zones and last 17 minutes, to honor the 17 people who died in the massacre. Youth EMPOWER said it hopes the movement encourages Congress to pass stricter gun legislation….
Hawaii’s Department of Education … advised schools in a letter last week to create a designated “walkout area” for students wanting to participate….
Agpaoa said he decided to organize a walkout at Keaau “because no one else was.” He’s asking Keaau students to congregate along a fence facing the highway and wave signs. He said the plan has been approved by Keaau administration and he’s hoping at least 500 Keaau students — or at least half the student body — will participate….
In the Honokaa-Kealakehe-Kohala-Konawaena Complex Area, schools were advised to draft their own plan according to how they think is best, according to Superintendent Art Souza.
“Some schools might just attach 17 minutes to an existing recess period and others might decide they want a particular space and time,” Souza said….
Hilo High School is allowing students to gather on the campus patio during the designated walkout time and read aloud any comments they have about school safety or gun violence.
Waiakea High School will be passing out paper butterflies to students and encouraging them to write out their “goal” on how to make others feel included…
Participating Hawaii Academy of Arts and Science students will wear a common color and also walk out to a designated space, assistant school director Terri York said. York said the goal at HAAS is “to support students who want to participate”…
read … Walkouts to send message: Schools to accommodate students’ push for stricter gun laws
East Hawaii CWS: Bureaucracy Overwhelmed by Masses of Homeless Drug Addicts
SA: …Required face-to-face monthly visits by case workers to check on their young wards in the East Hawaii Child Welfare Services region sometimes do not happen or are significantly delayed because of the caseloads, which by one measure are nearly three times greater than recommended national standards.
Shandon Cuba, 18, who spent several years in the foster care system with his three sisters, said he asked a Hilo case worker to check on his two youngest sisters staying with a foster family in Kau, nearly two hours away, but learned the girls weren’t visited for a year because agency workers lacked the time to do so.
“My 2- and 5-year-old sisters were being abused in that home, and when it was finally reported, that foster home got shut down,” Cuba wrote in testimony to the Legislature. “One year of abuse could have been easily avoided if the monthly visits happened.”…
The home was shut down in 2016, Cuba told the Honolulu-Star Advertiser….
Cuba, Mayo and others have provided sometimes gripping written testimony to the Legislature in support of House Bill 2277, which would start a pilot program at the East Hawaii CWS office, creating 23 new positions and limiting the number of children each social worker can oversee to 20. Some now have more than twice that number.
The House approved HB 2277 with no opposing votes, and the measure, which calls the East Hawaii situation a crisis, is now before the Senate. It noted that in 2015 the rate of confirmed child abuse cases in East Hawaii — 213 per 100,000 residents — was nearly three times the rate on Oahu….
Officials with Friends of the Children’s Justice Center of East Hawaii even raised questions about whether the overburdened system contributed to the horrific starvation death last year of a 9-year-old Hilo girl who had been on the agency’s radar.
“Did the lack of CWS worker positions contribute to her dangerous situation falling through the cracks and ultimately contribute to her death?” wrote Stephanie Oshiro, the organization’s president, and Robin Benedict, the program coordinator, in their legislative testimony….
Many families in the child welfare system live “off the grid” in tents or other quarters, often in remote rural areas with no addresses and no cell phone service, CWS officials said.
Some are squatters, occupying land that is not theirs. “That is very common,” said Elladine Olevao, who is temporarily overseeing CWS as branch administrator.
Adding to the challenges, some families live in areas accessible only with four-wheel-drive vehicles. One client lived in a tree….
Throw in the prevalence of mental health and substance abuse issues, including the need sometimes to fly children to Oahu for residential treatment services, a practice common to all the neighbor islands, and the job demands intensify….
The number of fines the Hawaii island courts have imposed on DHS for failure to file timely reports has increased within the past two years, a Judiciary spokeswoman said. The fines ranged from $200 to $1,000….
“You’re just putting out fires and putting Band-Aids on,” said Sharon Dillard, who recently resigned from the East Hawaii CWS office partly because the stress of the job was affecting her health. “There’s no real social work going on, where you feel like you’re actually making a difference.”…
“I would like to do good social work,” Motta told the Star-Advertiser. “Mostly people now are putting out fires, just trying to prevent disaster.”
Asked whether kids are being put in harm’s way because of the heavy workloads, Motta said: “It’s not a matter of if but when. Everybody is just overwhelmed and overloaded.”…
Best Comments:
“So, 514 kids/14 case workers = 36 kids per case worker; if monthly visits are required for every kid, and they're all in separate homes (unlikely), and there are 20 work days per month, you'd have to visit 1.8 kids per day. Sounds feasible, even with East Hawaii driving times.”
“My cousin is a case worker on Maui. She explained it to me this way, you do the home visit which means you plan and schedule the visit. Before you go you call ahead to confirm and when you show up sometimes no one is home. Then you are required to locate the family ASAP to make sure everything is OK and reschedule. Then you conduct the sit visit, head back to the office to write your case notes and report. You have case conferences with the supervisor. Then every day there is a crisis, some kid is missing, there are allegations of abuse, and all long the way you are working with and meeting with the kid's family who have all kinds of issues and wants the kid back even though you know that's not a good idea. Then there are the visits to family court and all the other legal drama. The home visits are just a part of the overall responsibilities of the case manager. Its not simple math and no 36 active cases is not a manageable case load.”
read … Crisis
Hawaii is not Oregon: Assisted Suicide Horror Stories Coming?
SA: The legislative process has not ended, of course. Opponents have offered amendments in an effort to improve the bill. One, to add a “sunset clause” enabling lawmakers to take another look in three years, should be considered….
a finding of “suicide” will nullify insurance claims by the survivors, among other unintended consequences. They add that this is why the term is avoided at all costs….
The House measure currently under review includes hoped-for safeguards against abuse. Among these: a waiting period of 20 days from the time the patient files a written request for the prescription; and steps to prevent coercion by someone in the patient’s circle of family and friends.
There are two witnesses required to attest to the patient’s sound mind in making the decision to seek the life-ending prescription. One of them must not be a relative, and one must not be someone entitled to a portion of the patient’s estate at their death.
Whether or not this is enough protection should be the focus of further discussion as the bill moves through the Senate….
Hawaii is not Oregon, and it behooves this state to make sure that no horror-story scenarios play out here. HB 2739, if it becomes law, should be followed by state health officials with an eye on possible coercion of the terminal patient.
Among the criteria they should check is the approach taken by health insurers, which could set coverage rates to encourage medical aid-in-dying over other clinical or end-of-life treatment options.
And if lawmakers are as inclined to enact the measure as it now seems, there should be discussion about whether alternative options are sufficiently supported by this legislation. Critics have pointed to the requirement for one or more counseling sessions to be provided “as necessary.” This may not be strong enough, as mandates go….
Borreca: Hawaii’s top Corporate Lobbyist Wants Suicide, but just won’t die
read … Horror Stories
Heroin Increasing on Kauai
KGI: …on Kauai, police have seen an increase in the use of black tar heroin over the last two years.
In 2015, KPD seized a total of 0.8 grams of heroin, and in 2016, a total of 9.9 grams, said Bryson Ponce, Kauai Police Department’s Investigative Services Bureau assistant chief.
In 2017, KPD seized a total of 526.2 grams of black tar heroin. So far in 2018, KPD seized a total of 80.8 grams….
It’s really an honor for me to participate as the prosecuting attorney at Drug Court graduation ceremonies and see how the participants have turned their lives around,” Kollar said.
At any given time, there are 60 to 70 Drug Court clients in the program, he said.
Because the process of getting a search warrant is time consuming, the prosecutor’s office is working with the judiciary to establish pilot projects that would allow for electronic review and approval of search warrants.
“We are trying to streamline that in a legal and effective way,” Kollar said. “We were the first county in the state to implement telephonic search warrants for drunk driving cases and we would like to be the first on this too.”…
read … A look at the island’s opioid crisis
HB1665: Counties, Kouchi Oppose Re-written TAT Bill
KGI: A state House bill that would change the way counties receive revenue from the Transient Accommodations Tax was proposed by the Hawaii Council of Mayors, but it may not survive the session.
The proposed change means counties would receive a percentage of revenues collected from the tax rather than a specific amount. Currently, the County of Kauai receives 14.5 percent of the $103 million TAT.
Because the county’s expenses vary from year to year, Rep. James Tokioka said placing limitations on how the revenues from the TAT can be spent would restrict the counties from funding other necessary expenses being paid for from the TAT.
“As the bill is currently written, it would take the freedom of long-term planning away from Kauai. Additionally, the costs related to tourism go beyond the expenses laid out in this bill,” Tokioka said.
(Tokioka voted ‘No’ on HB1667)
If the TAT is reduced, Tokioka said counties will be forced to either raise real property tax or cut critical services — neither of which he supports.
“In my opinion, this bill was an attempt to limit the counties’ share of the TAT….
Sen. Ron Kouchi said he was not supporting the bill….
in a statement to TGI, Reps. Dee Morikawa and Nadine Nakamura said they’re not specifically focusing on HB 1665 because the session is only halfway through and the bill may not survive. “Be assured that we are focusing our efforts to secure additional TAT funds for our counties,” the statement said.
(Translation: Morikawa and Nakamura both voted yes on HB1665 and they appreciate The Garden Island not revealing that to its readers.)
HB1667: Text, Status
read … Legislators oppose tax bill
Rail Costs Keep Going up—We Can Still Stop at Middle Street
SA: A recent editorial called on city and rail officials to finish rail construction without blowing through the budget (“City should stick to budget for rail,” Star-Advertiser, March 7). There is reason to doubt their ability to do so.
Rail’s estimated construction cost was $3 billion in 2006, according to then-Mayor Mufi Hannemann (“Rail cost estimate: $3 billion,” Honolulu Advertiser, June 23, 2006).
Today, Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s latest estimate is $8.2 billion.
Even that number is squishy in the eyes of the project’s management oversight contractor (“Railwatchdog ‘not confident’ $8.2B price tag to remain fixed,” Oct. 20, 2017).
Tellingly, the recent Star-Advertiser editorial described the current budget as “around $9 billion.” Not long ago, Caldwell suggested that it be rounded up to $10 billion.
City and HART officials continue to make the same mistakes. For example: Caldwell blamed HART’s former executive director, Dan Grabauskas, for losing control of construction costs, explaining, “We need a new executive director who has construction experience building rail. Dan Grabauskas did not have it. We need someone who says, ‘I’ve built rail systems and can tell you what’s going to happen next.’”
The current executive director, Andrew Robbins, has extensive experience selling rail systems, but not building them.
The University of Hawaii Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s chairman, Panos Prevedouros, says it would cost at least $13 billion to build rail to Ala Moana Center.
City and HART officials want eventually to extend rail to Manoa and Waikiki but there are “obstacles” (“5 plans take rail past Ala Moana face a host of obstacles,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 25). The truth is that $8.2 billion is barely enough to reach Middle Street, and rail cannot reach Manoa or Waikiki without a permanent extension of the rail tax. But that tax extension will be necessary just to operate and maintain rail….
Billions would be saved by ending rail at Middle Street, and the cost of operating and maintaining rail would be reduced significantly. Win, win.
read … Transit innovations impel shorter rail
Legislative News:
QUICK HITS: