Picking apart the $50 fee
Hawaii: Pain in Paradise
COVID Unemployment Recovery -- Hawaii 48th
With Long COVID Comes Long Emergency Powers
Poll: Green 55%, Cayetano 19%, Kahele 16%
SA: … Green would receive 55% of Democratic Primary votes if the election were held “today,” according to the results of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Hawaii Poll.
By comparison, Vicky Cayetano — a business entrepreneur and former Hawaii first lady — would receive 19% of the votes, followed by U.S. Rep. Kai Kahele with 16%….
The actual vote for both the Democratic and Republican party primary elections will be held Aug. 13, followed by the general election on Nov. 8….
SA Editorial: For governor’s race, it’s Josh Green and Duke Aiona
read … Approvals still high for Josh Green in Hawaii governor’s race
Poll: Aiona 48%, Penn 26%, Tsuneyoshi 9%
SA: … On the Republican side, 48% of Republican primary voters would pick James “Duke” Aiona — a former deputy prosecutor, judge and two-term lieutenant governor….BJ Penn — an Ultimate Fighting Champion Hall of Famer — followed Aiona, with 26% of the Republican voters polled choosing him. Honolulu City Council member Heidi Tsuneyoshi trailed with 9%….
read … Approvals still high for Josh Green in Hawaii governor’s race
Hawaii lieutenant governor’s race deadlocked
SA: … State House Finance Chair Sylvia Luke led the poll with 21%, followed by 19% for former mayoral candidate Keith Amemiya and 18% for former Honolulu City Council Chair Ikaika Anderson. Sherry Menor-McNamara, CEO and president of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, trailed with only 4%….
Running in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor are Rob Burns, Tae Kim and Seaula Jr. Tupai. The lone nonpartisan candidate is Charles (Kale) Keoho.
The Hawaii Poll found Republican voters favored Burns, with 37%; Tupai, 25%; followed by Kim with 5%. However, 33% of the GOP voters were undecided, and the margin of error was 8.7% due to the smaller number of respondents….
read … Hawaii lieutenant governor’s race deadlocked
Voters give Ige and Biden approval boost, Hawaii Poll shows
SA: … Ige received a 41% approval rating in January compared with 44% this month, according to the results of the latest Honolulu Star-Advertiser Hawaii Poll.
He received an identical 50% disapproval rating in both January and July. But the number of voters who were “not sure” about Ige fell from 9% in January to 6% in July, giving him a bump in his approval rating….
At the same time, 48% of Hawaii voters approve of President Joe Biden’s job performance, giving Biden some welcomed island aloha compared with his overall 38% average job approval rating….
read … Voters give Ige and Biden approval boost, Hawaii Poll shows
Hawaii Carpenters Union Owns Ikaika Anderson
Shapiro: … Since the local Carpenters Union super PAC spent $3 million smearing former Gov. Ben Cayetano in his 2012 anti-rail mayoral race against Kirk Caldwell — for which it apologized after attaining its goal — politicians have tread lightly around the carpenters and rail lest they be next in the crosshairs.
An exception is Rep. Sylvia Luke, who’s bluntly called out excessive spending and shady tactics by the carpenters’ political action committee.
We’ll see what it costs her as the union zeroes in on her campaign for lieutenant governor….
In 2018, Luke said the union’s PAC, Be Change Now, was “out of control” after it spent $3 million in that election, including $1 million on behalf of Josh Green’s campaign for lieutenant governor, with little accountability under election laws. Green made the union’s lobbyist his chief of staff and is now front-runner for governor with the carpenters’ support.
Luke, the House finance chairwoman who was skeptical of rail bailouts, described $62,000 the PAC spent on attack mailers against Honolulu City Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga as “just clear-out mudslinging,” and another time accused the union of a “thuggish approach.”
Now comes the payback.
Be Change Now recently endorsed and began running TV ads for one of Luke’s opponents, former City Council member Ikaika Anderson, in the tight Democratic primary for LG…
The Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters has only 6,200 members, but wields outsize influence for two reasons:
>> Big bucks. Be Change Now (formerly Pacific Resource Partnership) is financed from the Carpenters Market Recovery Program Fund, which receives nearly $1 from unionized contractors for every hour a carpenter works. As of February the PAC had $7.8 million on hand.
>> The U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which allows PACs associated with corporations, labor unions and other special interests to spend virtually unlimited amounts on behalf of candidates….
As Explained:
read … Hawaii Carpenters Union wields oversize political hammer
Gubernatorial candidates promise relief from state’s general excise tax on food, medicine
HNN: … This year’s governor’s race could lead to one of the biggest consumer tax cuts in recent Hawaii history.
As people continue to feel the pinch with rising prices, candidates are promising relief from the state’s general excise tax (GET).
All three major candidates in the democratic race for governor — Businesswoman Vicky Cayetano, Lt. Gov. Josh Green and U.S. Rep. Kai Kahele support lifting the excise tax on food and medicine….
Former Tax Director Kurt Kawafuchi said businesses can pass the GET to customers.
“If you take a store like Ross, and you go and buy something for $100, Ross is not only charging you the general excise tax on the $100, but it also is paying the 4.5% on many of its transactions to operate,” Kawafuchi explained. “For example, when it pays rent to the landlord, generally that’s going to include the 4.5% general excise tax.”
Kawafuchi said there’s already an exemption for prescription drugs ….
CB: Cost Of Living: Here’s How Top Democratic Candidates Say They Could Help
read … Gubernatorial candidates promise relief from state’s general excise tax on food, medicine
‘Our business is literally rooted to the ground’: Veto of ag lease extension bill draws ire
HTH: … More than 100 small farmers on the Big Island could lose their businesses after Gov. David Ige’s decision to veto a bill allowing them to extend their leases on state land.
Ige vetoed House Bill 1705 last week after announcing his intention to do so in late June. The bill would have allowed certain farmers on agricultural park lands whose leases are expiring in 15 years or less to extend them for an additional 30 years….
SA: Agricultural theft costing Hawaii farmers
read … ‘Our business is literally rooted to the ground’: Veto of ag lease extension bill draws ire
Misdemeanor probe into Honolulu police union leadership forwarded to state Attorney General
SA: …“This case has been turned over to the AG’s office, which will determine the next course of action. Persons are presumed innocent until proven otherwise. The officers remain on restricted duty pending the outcome of the investigation,” said Logan in a statement….
read … Misdemeanor probe into Honolulu police union leadership forwarded to state Attorney General
Honolulu Police Department vacancies increase
KITV: … The number of violent crimes in Oahu is increasing. Officials at Honolulu Police Department say there have been 838 cases reported this year. The number of HPD officer vacancies are also increasing. There are currently 350 open sworn-in officer positions.
The HPD kicked off a campaign to hire and retain employees.
There is currently a pilot program in place – where patrol officers will have three-day 12-hour work shifts followed by four straight days off to see if this gives a better work life balance for their personnel. This program is scheduled to last until the end of the year….
According to a report given to the Honolulu Police Commission, there were 156 applications in July which is down by 30%. For more information on the HPD recruitment process, click here….
read … Honolulu Police Department vacancies increase
Hawaii Will Soon Have A Women’s Court In An Effort To Let More Criminals out of Jail
CB: … Earlier this month, Gov. David Ige signed off on House Bill 2421, creating a three-year pilot program for the state’s first Women’s Court.
The bill was backed by the Women’s Prison Project, a 31-member coalition who worked closely with the Hawaii Women’s Legislative Caucus on several bills to help incarcerated women.
This bill appropriates almost $700,000 out of the state general fund to address women’s distinct needs by implementing gender-responsive programming, with the goal of reducing recidivism and diverting participants from incarceration….
read … Hawaii Will Soon Have A Women’s Court In An Effort To Reduce Recidivism
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