Kawailoa Windfarm: Island Insurance Pays $250K to Kill Bats
HB852: Prohibit Discrimination by Employers Based on Political Affiliation
Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted January 30, 2021
Grim Reality of Unemployment Taxes
2021 Hawaii Firearms Bills
WCIT/DTL Owner Cosponsors SB1423: ‘Super powers’ proposed for Aloha Stadium replacement agency
SA: … The bill introduced Wednesday would give the Stadium Authority, a state agency (group of the usual insiders) managing the 50,000-seat stadium, broader powers for redevelopment and is aimed at overcoming time lost last year when lawmakers couldn’t agree on a measure to advance the more than $300 million project.
Sen. Glenn Wakai, one of the bill’s sponsors, said the legislation would give the Stadium Authority super powers regarding procurement, permitting and other things.
The measure, Senate Bill 1423, would statutorily attach the agency to the Hawaii Community Development Authority, a state agency that has broad regulatory tools for land redevelopment mainly limited to Kakaako and Kalaeloa.
However, unlike a 2019 decision to have HCDA take the lead fostering redevelopment of the 98-acre stadium site owned by the state, S.B. 1423 would give the Stadium Authority the same powers as HCDA and sole jurisdiction over the stadium site.
“We don’t want to have too many layers of government, so we’re not going to put the Stadium Authority under HCDA,” Wakai said. “You are going to be the board for this new district.”…
Urgency further increased last month when the Stadium Authority announced an indefinite suspension of future events in the 46-year-old facility, with a few exceptions, because budget reserves were being drained by maintenance and little revenue amid the coronavirus pandemic (they wanted to create an artificial sense of crisis so legislators would give them ‘super powers’).
Wakai’s co-sponsor of the bill is Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, (part-owner of WCIT/DTL and) chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee….
(Translation: WCIT/DTL is driving this gravy train. Pay them to buy a ticket.)
S.B. 1423 also would allow a land lease with a developer to run 99 years, which is something the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs opposed last year but now supports, according to Wakai.
(Translation: Where WCIT/DTL goes, OHA follows.)
The state Department of Accounting and General Services in December identified three preferred private development partners and has a goal to pick a winning partner by the end of this year. But DAGS has yet to publish a request for proposals specifying key provisions the three competitors would have to meet in their bid proposals.
A winning bidder would then have to negotiate (with these insiders) detailed terms for financing, building and maintaining the new facility along with rights to redevelop surrounding state land possibly with housing, retail and other uses under a land lease….
SA Editorial: Keep HCDA’s role in stadium district
SB1423: Text, Status
HB1348: Text, Status
WCIT/DTL over the Years:
read … ‘Super powers’ proposed for Aloha Stadium replacement agency
Hawaii’s high hopes for high tech not new, as worn as Labor Department’s aging mainframe
Borreca: … Doesn’t it make sense to point out the things you are good at? So why did Gov. David Ige in his seventh State of the State address last week stress Hawaii as a high-tech hub, when at best, the state continues to embrace failed technology and at worse, is more of a digital meltdown than a signpost to a new “innovation economy”?
Back in his first speech to the state in 2015, Ige had to apologize for the state’s technology failure, the Hawaii Health Connector, that was supposed to direct callers to local health insurance plans under the Obamacare rollout. In its first year it enrolled just 2,192 people in health plans, fewer than in any other state. In his speech then, Ige said, “I will not minimize the disappointments we’ve all felt with the Health Connector.”
Just last week, the Ige administration was still apologizing. Honolulu Star- Advertiser Kokua Line columnist Christine Donnelly wrote that “Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), popularly known as ‘the plus-up,’ is flowing in Hawaii only to recipients of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance at this point, because PUA claims are not processed on Hawaii’s aging mainframe computer, which is so fragile that the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations fears it may crash, DLIR officials said.”
Ige rightly reasoned that “The pandemic also exposed our local economy for what it is: very dependent on tourism. To make the state less vulnerable to sudden and unexpected changes, we must diversify.”
Nothing new about that. Democrats when they became the majority party in 1954 made the same exact pledge: diversify the economy.….
Shapiro: Dr. Ige’s digital prescription for our Hawaii’s ills flatlines
read … Hawaii’s high hopes for high tech not new, as worn as Labor Department’s aging mainframe
Restaurant owners push back on proposed tax on sugary beverages
HTH: … A proposed state tax on sugary beverages is unpopular among Hawaii restaurant owners.
Last week, Gov. David Ige introduced his legislative package, a collection of nearly 200 measures he intends to pursue this session. Among them was House Bill 994 and Senate Bill 1148, both of which would impose a 2 cent tax on each fluid ounce of all sugar-sweetened beverages sold in the state.
Under this policy, a 12-pack of 12-ounce cans of soda would cost an additional $2.88, while a six-pack of 20-ounce bottles would cost an additional $2.40.
And the tax would affect more than just soda: “any non-alcoholic beverage, carbonated or noncarbonated, that is intended for human consumption and contains any added caloric sweetener” would be taxed, according to the bill, which would include many juice and tea beverages. However, it would not affect prices of diet sodas, which do not use sugar-based sweeteners that contain calories….
Restaurant owners are strongly opposed, however.
“We’re going through a pandemic right now, you know?” said Sarah Nguyen, board member of the Hawaii Restaurant Association and owner of Pearl City pizzeria the Pizza Press. “A lot of us are just struggling to survive.”
Victor Lim, legislative lead for the association, said similar sugar taxes have been suggested elsewhere in the country, but only implemented in a handful of places and never on any scale greater than a municipality.
“These taxes are very regressive,” Lim said. “It affects low- and middle-income people much more than upper-class people. … It’s targeting people without disposable income and small businesses during a pandemic.”
Nguyen said Mexico imposed a sugar tax, but obesity rates in that county have only increased since then….
read … Restaurant owners push back on proposed tax on sugary beverages
Bill would allow luxury property owners choice to send tax money to county or charity
HTH: … One of the sponsors of a law that tacked an extra property tax on luxury homes now has a bill giving those property owners a choice of sending the money to the county or a charity.
The tax, approved last year, imposes $13.60 tax per thousand dollars worth of property value of more than $2 million for property in the residential category, compared to $11.10 per thousand for the portion of the property less than $2 million. In contrast, the homeowner rate is $6.15.
Bill 18, sponsored by Hilo Councilman Aaron Chung, would allow property owners to write off that extra tax if they provide proof they donated the amount to a recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit that benefits Hawaii County residents or to county-sponsored homelessness initiatives.
Chung said the council heard from opponents of last year’s bill that paying the extra tax would cut into their charitable giving. He said he’s now hearing from nonprofits and even some educational institutions that the bill has hurt their contributions….
The tax applies only to 935 of the 140,000 properties on the island….
UPDATE Feb 4, 2021: Charity tax write-off measure delayed for more work
read … Bill would allow luxury property owners choice to send tax money to county or charity
Hawaii Co PD to Name Disciplined Officers
HTH: … A day after stating the Hawaii Police Department would not submit until court-ordered the names of officers suspended or fired for misconduct, pursuant to a law that went into effect last fall, the county changed its stance.
Police Chief Paul Ferreira on Wednesday told West Hawaii Today that the department was advised by the county Office of the Corporation Counsel not to include names of officers in the misconduct report filed for 2020….
“If ordered by the courts or if the opinion from our Office of the Corporation Counsel changes, we are prepared to identify the officers listed on the misconduct report,” he said.
By Thursday, however, the opinion from the Office of the Corporation Counsel changed; and the department was preparing to resubmit the report, originally submitted Jan. 4 and amended Jan. 20, including the names of the officers whose grievance procedures concluded in accordance with Act 47.
“After receiving your inquiry yesterday, again reached out to our Office of Corporation Counsel and now the decision is to submit an amended report to the Legislature with the identity of officers included, which will be done this week,” Ferreira said via email Thursday.
Act 47, which became law without Gov. David Ige’s signature on Sept. 15, requires Hawaii’s four county police chiefs to disclose in annual reports to the state Legislature by Jan. 31 the identity of an officer upon an officer’s suspension or discharge from a department once the grievance procedure is concluded. The names can also be released retroactively upon request.
The law requiring the report to the Legislature, which is publicly accessible, has been on the books since 1995; its scope disclosing more details was expanded in 2014. The further expansion to include names was passed by the 2020 Legislature, after a measure that died quietly in conference in 2019 was rekindled last session.
In November, the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers union filed civil suit against all four counties, seeking to have the law declared unconstitutional. The union opposes the changes, saying the law violates the privacy rights of officers and the collective bargaining agreement between the union and the counties.
No filings have occurred in the three outer-island cases since amended complaints were filed by SHOPO in December. However, there has been action in SHOPO’s case against the City and County of Honolulu challenging the disclosure of police disciplinary records from 1996-2020 sought by Honolulu Civil Beat, and disclosing the identity of officers suspended or discharged in the report to the Legislature.
An Oahu judge on Nov. 27 dissolved a temporary restraining order granted to SHOPO and denied part of a Nov. 23 motion for preliminary injunction pertaining to the disclosure of City and County of Honolulu police disciplinary records. A hearing is set for March 3 on disclosure requirements for the legislative report….
HTH: Police discipline report shows 2 officers discharged, seven suspended
read … Change in opinion: HPD to comply with Act 47, ID officers fired, suspended for misconduct
COVID-19 vaccine: Everybody at DoE is Ahead of You
SA: … School employees are just now getting their turn in larger numbers. So far, 18,200 Department of Education personnel have filled out an online form indicating they want to be vaccinated, and all those names have been passed on to the Department of Health, according to Deputy Superintendent Phyllis Unebasami. There are roughly 44,000 public school staff, including contract workers and casual hires.
The vaccine is voluntary. The DOH is sharing in batches the list of those willing to be vaccinated with medical providers who administer the vaccines. As of Friday 9,000 names had been submitted to providers, Unebasami said.
A number of private schools also have submitted their own lists of employees to the Health Department.
Rather than favoring one job category over another, the DOE included all personnel at the school level in its priority list, from classroom teachers to school bus drivers.
“It’s not just the teachers,” Unebasami said. “In order for the schools to operate and bring the kids back safely, we need our administrators, we need our cafeteria workers, we need our custodians — everyone who is working with children or facing the public.
“Crossing guards have the same priority as a teacher,” she added. “It’s one big team that opens up the school.” …
(Meanwhile they are providing 1 hr a day of virtual education.)
read … Hawaii educators get a chance for COVID-19 vaccines
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