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Monday, March 15, 2021
March 15, 2021 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 3:28 PM :: 2486 Views

HR148: HSTA Demands McKinley HS Rename

Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted March 13, 2021

Hawaii Senate Passes Two Anti-Gun Bills

HART Wants to Hike GE Tax and TAT

HNN: … Despite the financial toll of the pandemic on Hawaii taxpayers and the state budget, the rail authority said it will likely seek another bail out from the state legislature.

With the troubled project facing a new shortfall of up to $3 billion, Joey Manahan, director of government relations at the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, said HART may have to seek an extension to the 0.5% general excise tax surcharge beyond 2030.

“I think we recognize that now that we’re going to have to. We’re not doing it this year but certainly next year, I think it’s going to become very real,” Manahan said during a zoom interview with Hawaii News Now on Sunday.

Manahan provided more details on his remarks on the need for an extension during a meeting of the HART board’s finance committee on Thursday.

He said the rail authority is still updating its financial plan. Because of that, he said its difficult to say if HART will only seek an extension of the surcharge. He’s not sure if HART will need to seek an increase of the 0.5% surcharge.

As part of the last bailout in 2017, state lawmakers also increased the hotel room tax by 1% for 13 years.

Given that the financial plan update is still ongoing, Manahan said it’s also hypothetical on whether HART will need to seek an extension -- or an increase -- to the state’s Transient Accommodation Tax.

State lawmakers said there’s little support for another bailout.

“At this point, my feeling is there is probably very little appetite to provide an open-ended extension of the GET surcharge,” said House Speaker Scott Saiki….

read … HART to seek another bailout for financially troubled rail system

Vaccines could lead to lifting of travel restrictions

SA: … Lt. Gov. Josh Green told the Star-Advertiser last week he supports loosening interisland travel restrictions, especially for vaccinated travelers. Green has recommended loosening interisland travel restrictions as early as April 1. He’s also recommending allowing trans-Pacific travelers, who have been properly vaccinated, to bypass the testing and quarantine requirements on May 1.

Governments and companies around the world are working to develop a vaccine passport that could identify vaccinated individuals, who might qualify for less restrictive travel entry and other benefits. Green said he has reached out to mobile health apps, such as CommonPass, to discuss using their vaccination passport in Hawaii.

There also has been some buy-in among state lawmakers who are considering Senate Resolution 53 and Senate Concurrent Resolution 71, urging Gov. David Ige to allow travelers — interisland and trans-Pacific — to bypass the mandatory 10-day quarantine if they provide proof that they have been properly vaccinated.

Green said lifting interisland restrictions, with or without the vaccine tie-in, is under discussion with the four county mayors….

read … Vaccines could lead to lifting of travel restrictions

State BOE to begin search for new superintendent

KHON: … (despite parroting the union line for 4 years,) Kishimoto faced severe backlash (HSTA retaliation) for her handling of (attempt to get teachers to start showing up for work again at) the Department of Education (after the entire HSTA membership jumped the vax line) amid the pandemic. On March 2, just one week prior to her announcement, the Hawaii State Teacher’s Association (HSTA) urged the Board of Education (BOE) not to renew the superintendent’s contract.

The virtual meeting is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 18…..

read … State BOE to begin search for new superintendent

Tens of thousands of Hawaii residents live in areas vulnerable to dam failure

SA: … Of the 130 state-regulated dams in Hawaii, 126 are labeled by authorities as having high hazard potential, meaning they could cause death if they fail.

Additionally, more than a third of the dams are rated either in poor or unsatisfactory condition, according to the latest Dam Safety Performance Report for Hawaii by the Association of State Dam Safety Officials.

Most of the rest of the state’s dams, according to that 2018 report, were deemed in fair shape, one step below a satisfactory rating. A fair rating means no existing deficiencies are recognized but that an extreme hydrologic or seismic event could create one….

read … Tens of thousands of Hawaii residents live in areas vulnerable to dam failure

City seeks public input –How much more can we jam up Keeaumoku St?

KHON: … Keeaumoku Street provides a critical mauka to makai connection between Makiki and Ala Moana, serving many residents and businesses. The City says its aim is to transform the street design in a way that will be more accommodating to the needs of pedestrians, wheelchair users, bicyclists, public transit riders and drivers alike.

Public input on planned renovations is encouraged to help ensure that the project addresses the needs and desires of the neighborhoods and destinations it serves.

The City is asking interested participants to complete a virtual walk audit survey, and add comments on an interactive map. To complete the survey, click here.

read … City seeks public input on improvement of major street in Honolulu

Who Would Kidnap a Space Telescope?

GE: … Perhaps the most dramatic mishap in modern history is the story of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, or JCMT for short. In 1984, a steel structure for the observatory was prepared for transport from England, where it was built, to Hawaii, where it would protect the telescope. According to Richard Hills, a JCMT project scientist, the vessel hired to transport the structure broke down at the last minute, and the job was given to a commercial captain and his small boat. The captain was supposed to sail right to Hawaii.

Instead, the boat sailed to Holland, where it picked up a shipment of dangerous explosives, presumably for a side job. The boat then idled outside the Panama Canal, purportedly awaiting special clearance for its explosive cargo, before heading to Ecuador, where it unloaded the stuff. The JCMT team had no line of communication to the captain during this quite unauthorized trek. Officials could track the boat’s whereabouts only by frantically checking shipping ledgers. And all the while, JCMT’s steel exterior sat piled up on the boat’s deck.

After 10 long weeks, the boat eventually made it to Hawaii. By then, the penalty fees that the captain had incurred for the late arrival nearly matched the payment he was owed for the delivery itself. The captain, floating just outside territorial waters, sent a threatening message to shore, Hills told me: “Either you pay me in full or I’m just going to dump this steel into the sea and say goodbye.” The JCMT team managed to get a court order that instructed the captain, under laws that governed “piracy on the high seas,” to give up the boat. According to Hills, the Coast Guard delivered the document to the rogue boat, nailed the paper to the mast of the ship—a maritime custom, apparently—and arrested the captain at gunpoint. Hills suspects that the man was not paid for the rather subpar job….

read … Who Would Kidnap a Space Telescope?

How One Private School Is Trying To Help Public Schools Catch Up

CB: … Some public school parents are seizing an opportunity to register their kids in a tuition-free virtual summer school at a private school eager to help students who are struggling because of the now year-old pandemic.

Hanahauoli School, a $23,340 a year private school in Honolulu serving pre-K through sixth grade, is offering a tuition-free, five-week program for second through fifth graders enrolled in public schools.

It’s the second year of the program, which debuted last summer “in direct response to the critical community needs” with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and disruption to student learning, the school said. But Hanahauoli broadened access this year by doubling capacity to 96 slots, with priority given to kids demonstrating financial need….

The school called it the “only elementary level summer bridge program of its kind in Hawaii” that offers reading, writing, math, and a social emotional and wellness curriculum, according to a news release.

The DOE student tuition waiver for the summer program — which is also open to enrolled Hanahauoli School students but at a cost of $1,100 — was made possible through a donation from a local family, Woo said. She declined to identify the family or give the amount of the grant per the donor’s request.

The concept of a private school-public school crossover program isn’t totally new in Hawaii.

Punahou School offers a rigorous tuition-free summer school for eligible Department of Education students starting in sixth grade that continues through their senior year. Known as the PUEO Program, it began in 2005 and in 2015 received an additional $6 million to sustain itself over the next decade.

But the pandemic has laid bare stark advantages in access for private school students versus public schoolers, including an earlier return to in-person classes….

(CLUE: No HSTA.) 

read … How One Private School Is Trying To Help Public Schools Catch Up

HB533: Shark Protection Bill Is A Misdirected Conservation Effort

CB: … House Bill 553 is a well-intentioned but fundamentally flawed and misdirected shark conservation effort.

Hawaii already has an excellent conservation environment for coastal sharks. The two-thirds of the Hawaiian archipelago contained within the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument are already completely protected from commercial and recreational fishing and there are no commercial fisheries for coastal sharks in the remaining third (i.e., the Main Hawaiian Islands).

Our conservation focus should be on maintaining and improving this already favorable environment….

The bill will produce no meaningful protection for sharks because targeted fishing for sharks (the focus of the bill) is already a rare activity in Hawaii…

For example, local citizen scientists have been tagging and releasing by-caught sharks to help us understand post-release survival rates. There is no provision for them to continue doing this under HB 553.

Poorly grounded, misdirected conservation legislation wastes time and effort and creates an illusion of efficacy without delivering meaningful protection. Instead of simply recycling the same fatally flawed bill year after year, we should adopt a more inclusive and carefully targeted approach….

read … Shark Protection Bill Is A Misdirected Conservation Effort

Illegal campsites creating problems at Diamond Head Beach Park

SA: … as daylight fades, people arrive to spend the night at illegal campsites in the underbrush or to engage in drug dealing, prostitution and other criminal activity, according to Tommy Waters, chairman of the Honolulu City Council.

“The community is at its wits’ end,” Waters said. “At dusk you see the caravan of people come up from Waikiki and Kapiolani Park, and by 10 p.m. they’re already in there.” …

Winston Welch, a member of the Diamond Head-Kapahulu-St. Louis Heights Neighborhood Board, testified that the growing encampment and illegal activities that include robberies of area homes have been on­going for at least a year and a half. He said the board had passed a resolution in February requesting earlier park closure hours.

Welch said Diamond Head residents had formed a committee for public safety, working with HPD, but things hadn’t improved: At their last parks cleanup, they gathered 150 needles “plus tons of trash.”…

read … More Homeless Mayhem

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