C’mon, Let’s Soak the Rich!
CDC: Hawaii Longest Life Expectancy in USA
Hawaii Family Forum Legislative Week in Review
To Get Leftover Vaccines In Hawaii, It Helps To Be Related to an HGEA Hospital Employee
CB: … In the absence of official guidance on how to distribute extra COVID-19 vaccines, (HGEA members at) Hilo Medical Center and Kona Community Hospital are prioritizing employees’ families….
But some patients who don’t meet current vaccine eligibility guidelines and are desperate to make appointments have expressed frustration at what they say is an unfair advantage for people who have found a way to get a shot based on who they know, rather than where they fall in the state’s priority list.
Belinda Cole-Schwartz, a Hilo resident who is 64 years old and has ongoing health problems including lupus. On Wednesday, she accompanied her 74-year-old husband to get his first COVID-19 vaccination shot at a distribution site set up by Hilo Medical Center.
She returned at the end of the day hoping she might get an extra vaccine but was told that the hospital was working off a list of people who are related to staff members.
“It just seemed grossly unfair,” Cole-Schwartz said in a phone interview, adding the people she saw receiving vaccines that day appeared to be in their 30’s and 40’s. Cole-Schwartz, a yoga instructor who lost her job during the pandemic, said as a Black woman, the strategy “reeked of privilege.”…
Another factor is avoiding a line of people seeking vaccines at the end of the day, which would raise concerns about social distancing and crowd control.
“We do upwards of 300 doses at that clinic so if the public rushes the clinic with hopes of getting one to three doses then that’s just not going to be in the clinic’s best interest in terms of recipient flow,” said (HGEA member) Elena Cabatu, Hilo Medical Center’s director of marketing….
Monica Prinzing, a spokeswoman for CVS, which owns Longs Drugs, said that the company gives leftover vaccines to eligible patients and employees, and otherwise leaves it up to individual pharmacists to decide how to distribute those extra doses.
“In the rare event of unused doses in our pharmacies, our pharmacy teams will use their best judgment for how best to efficiently manage extra doses,” she said Friday in an email.
The Queen’s Medical Center has given out more than 85,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine in Hawaii and its chief operating officer Jason Chang said the hospital prioritizes giving extra doses to its employees who haven’t yet been vaccinated.
“In addition, we also have an essential critical infrastructure worker wait list on hand to call those who are in the priority groups being vaccinated in accordance with the Department of Health’s vaccination plan,” he said in an email. “If necessary, we may approach those who may be waiting at the vaccination sites and go down the priority list (1a and 1b) to administer any remaining doses.”
Melinda Ashton, Hawaii Pacific Health executive vice president and chief quality officer, said the company only has at most five extra doses at the end of the day. She said at the Honolulu Pier 2 vaccination site, where about 2,000 people are vaccinated per day, extra doses are given to health care workers and a list of home-bound seniors….
HTH: ‘It’s definitely a relief’: Around 4,000 inoculated at mass vaccination event
read … To Get Leftover Vaccines In Hawaii, It Helps To Be Related To A Hospital Employee
How major bills fared at the Capitol
SA: … The state Legislature passed the midpoint of this year’s session Thursday, advancing bills that would supercharge the redevelopment of Aloha Stadium, legalize recreational cannabis and expand access to abortions and lethal doses of medication for terminally ill patients. With COVID-19 and its economic impacts top of mind, lawmakers have queued up a host of revenue-generating bills, including measures to boost the capital gains tax, corporate taxes and taxes on high-end real estate sales, along with a proposal that would increase the income tax for the state’s top earners to the highest in the nation. The bills that are alive have passed at least one chamber; bills that are failing have stalled in a committee or never received a hearing by internal deadlines — but that doesn’t mean they can’t be revived later….
read … How major bills fared at the Capitol
Public-private partnerships have a troubled history in Hawaii
SA: … Many state leaders view so-called P3 arrangements as attractive for having the private sector bear the risk and expense of major real estate projects with public purposes in return for rights to develop public land for an expected profit.
The reality, however, is that this strategy has a hit-or-miss record locally.
P3s in Hawaii have been successful largely for affordable-housing projects, though even some of these were plagued by difficulty and extreme delay before being realized.
On the other hand, there have been colossal failures with more ambitious P3 plans involving prime but underutilized state land, including sites at the University of Hawaii West Oahu, Honolulu Harbor, a peninsula in Kakaako and the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor.
More recently, Honolulu had its own contentious brush with the P3 process in connection with the city’s $11 billion rail project. In December, after receiving bids that were more than $1 billion higher than anticipated, the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation dropped its years-long effort to secure a P3 to build the last pieces of the system and run it for 30 years.
Local economist Paul Brewbaker calls P3s “true unicorns” of economic development strategy because credible commitments to such efforts by government leaders are inhibited or preempted by governance conditions.
“The incentive environments are so, so disparate (between) public and private that, jointly, they are dysfunctional,” he said. “Being well-intentioned is insufficient. It’s almost impossible to merge cultures, incentive structures, governance institutions and the like.” ….
(Several paragraphs listing multiple crooked Kakaako deals falling through.)
For the stadium project, state lawmakers need to pass a bill that would establish HCDA’s role with the Department of Accounting and General Services and the agency that manages the existing stadium. Two bills to do this are pending. Senate Bill 1423 has passed Senate committees and still needs to be heard in the House, while the reverse is true for House Bill 1348.
Without HCDA, DAGS would only be able to auction the stadium site to a high bidder for use….
SA: Financing issues often complicate public-private partnerships in Hawaii
read … Public-private partnerships have a troubled history in Hawaii
City’s proposed budget focuses on helping low-income families hardest hit in pandemic
HNN: … The city is planning to offer another round of federal aid for Oahu renters and landlords starting April 1.
City officials told the council Friday that $114 million will be available for lower-income residents to cover both back and future rents.
Details for the program are still being worked out.
“We understand the urgency, we know this program is focused on those folks who are at 80 percent area median income and below,” said the Director of the Office of Economic Revitalization Amy Asselbaye. “So they were potentially already having challenges in terms of their job or economic situation.”
Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said he wants to distribute the city’s funds more fairly and help communities that have been underserved.
Blangiardi cited the previous administration’s failure to include West Oahu in its traffic management system, which launched last year.
“The fact that those areas were left out, we couldn’t even run with this incredible traffic management center here and that place was disconnected is just crazy,” said Blangiardi.
“So it’s one of the first things we are going to make right.”
Council members are also pushing for the mayor to fight for hotel tax revenue from the state, which is now being withheld.
“I think we have to take a more aggressive approach that we do also need to be at the table and receiving the TAT that we are entitled to,” said Honolulu City Councilwoman Heidi Tsuneyoshi. “Because we do as a city handle a lot of the burden and handle a lot of the expense when our visitors come here.”
And in the wake of widespread flooding on Oahu this week, the council asked for more personnel assigned to flood prevention.
Chairman Tommy Waters said right now there are only five employees working stream maintenance and suggests using incoming federal funds….
HNN: Mayor outlines his post-pandemic vision for Oahu in first State of the City
Shapiro: Mayor Blangiardi’s uncharacteristic quiet can be a good thing
read … City’s proposed budget focuses on helping low-income families hardest hit in pandemic
Use The County Initiative Process To Create Change In Hawaii
CB: … In Hawaii, every county provides a process for citizen initiatives. Here’s how to force a citizen vote on a specific issue of concern….
read ... Use The County Initiative Process To Create Change In Hawaii
Cataluna: Hawaii residents have bigger things to be upset about
CB: … Hawaii residents have bigger things to be upset about.
The pandemic has reached this agonizing phase where it feels everyone you know has had insider-access to a vaccine but you’re nowhere near even a waiting list. The only things that have been totally eradicated in the last year have been the heads of various state departments, who took the fall for not fixing a deeply unfixable situation. The State of Hawaii cannot lead, but it can bully and blame all the live-long day.
Now the Legislature — which is forever bemoaning the “brain drain” and talking about plans to bring home those smart ex-pats who leave for college and never come back — came up with a scheme to tax exactly those educated, successful professionals at the highest tax rate in the country. Why come home to Hawaii when Hawaii is going to drain all your money?
Better to stay safely in another state, ignore the call to come back home to fix all the problems here with your hard-earned expertise and hard-earned salary. It’s a tax not on the super-rich, but on the people who had the audacity to make something of themselves. Thankfully, that plan is faltering.
Which leads to the final reason no one here is gunning for Punchy. People are mad. They understand the gleeful look drawn on Punchy’s face as he winds up to strike a blow. They can relate. Not that violence is ever the answer, but neither is drawing on a smile to be more aesthetically pleasing when your gut is boiling with frustration.
That cartoon release of aggression may be as sweet as the over-sweet juice Punchy pitches. How’s about a nice Hawaiian punch? Sure.
read … Should Punchy Be Canceled?
Heavy rain Proves Global Warming—Help Schatz Make Money Fall out of Sky
Borreca: … Hawaii’s future will include lots more rain, Fletcher explained. “It will be more frequent, of greater magnitude, occurring in unexpected locations, and lead to unexpected outcomes,” said Fletcher, one of UH’s top global warming experts.
(Translation: Borreca is trying to figure out how to speak for Schatz’ office as he once spoke for Inouye’s.)
He says we now need an expanded vocabulary, a new way of talking about the weather.
Basing the talk “on historical patterns is not a scientifically sound basis to protect our communities,” Fletcher said.
No more talking about 100-year storms; things have changed.
“Now is the time, with a climate-akamai administration in Washington, D.C., for local agencies, institutions and stakeholders with responsibility for managing weather-related vulnerabilities — drought, flooding, slope failure, coastal erosion, hurricanes, and importantly heat — to break out of siloed modes of operation,” he said.
(Inouye was easier to write for.)
That means it is time for the folks who study erosion, flooding or drought to combine forces to develop a plan incorporating all the disciplines.
“Develop an integrated roadmap to a safer future,” Fletcher urged….
(Translation: Use ‘climate’ to make weather events an excuse for federal ‘infrastructure’ spending programs.)
UH: Sea-level rise drives wastewater leakage to coastal waters in Honolulu
What this is all about -- March 11, 2021: Here's what will likely be in the massive, multi-trillion dollar infrastructure bill Democrats want to pass
read … Week of wild weather provides glimpse into Hawaii’s new global-warming future
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