Link home exemption to increase in home values
Changing tax credit to portion of income would help Oahu homeowners
Time running out at Legislature for bills hoping to make it to the governor's desk
How Police Department Spending in Hawaii Compares to Other States
FBI Raids 800-Person Cockfight--Four Arrested
Hawaii Meth Supplier Gets 24 Years for $5.5M COVID Fraud
Tax Hike set for Senate Vote
TGI: … Senate Bill 362, Draft 2, which raises the conveyance tax on property sales over $2 million, has survived committee (a feat that only one in 10 bills achieve) and is set for a final floor vote in the Senate this week.
UPDATE: Passed Senate 24-0 double referral in House.
(Yes, the solution to unaffordable housing is to tax housing. Who could fall for this?)
The state Department of Taxation estimates the bill would generate $4 million in new revenue for the Rental Housing Revolving Fund in fiscal year 2024 and $8 million by fiscal year 2029. The fund is used to subsidize the production of affordable housing projects (And we all know ‘affordable housing’ is just a slush fund for insiders.)
Advocates are pushing for the new bill to incorporate some elements of SB 678 — including higher tax rates on the most expensive homes and a 10 percent allocation for homeless services. (Thus copying California’s abject homelessness funding failure.).
read … Tax Hike
Hawaii lawmakers kill excise food tax exemption
HNN: … The proposal to end Hawaii’s 4.5% excise tax on food and medicine has died at the state Legislature…
there are still multiple tax relief bills still on the table — all involving the state’s complicated income tax system.
So even though lower income folks will be getting help, they may need help in filling out their tax forms to get it….
Tom Yamachika, of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii, said he was surprised to see those benefits would also be tied in the future to changes to the cost of living.
“Which is something that we’ve almost never seen before. I mean, it’s been proposed before, but it’s just never seen the light of day,” Yamachika said.
At the workers center Alcubilla said it will be up to the taxpayers to claim what they are entitled to. “That’s the big thing for us to really organize the community to let them know that there are resources out there,” he said.
They are encouraging working families to seek Volunteer Income Tax Assistance — VITA. The sites are listed online….
Precisely as Predicted January 31, 2023: Green Abandons GET reform effort
REALITY: GE Tax: Audit Shows Tourists Pay 14.1%--not 30%
read … Hawaii lawmakers kill excise food tax exemption, but other relief lives on
SB1035: Senate to Vote on Eliminating GE Tax on Medical Care
HTH: … A bill that would exempt medical providers from the state’s general excise tax for treating Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE patients will be voted on today in the Senate.
If approved, Senate Bill 1035 will cross over to the House for further review.
The bill is one of the last measures still alive in the House or Senate that would exempt medical providers from the GET.
“I feel comfortable that it’ll pass out of the Senate,” said Sen. Lorraine Inouye, who introduced the bill. “Hopefully, it’ll have a good reception in the House as well.” …
read … Key state Senate vote today on measure aimed at physician retention
Report: Teacher Turnover Increases Sharply In Hawaii
CB: …Hawaii saw a 12.3% uptick in turnover of public school teachers during the 2021-2022 academic year compared with the school year that began in fall 2017, according to an employment report by the state Department of Education.
The report also shows that Hawaii’s teachers are resigning at a higher rate than they are retiring, based on numbers from the last five academic years.
In the 2021-2022 school year, 920 teachers resigned while 310 teachers retired.
The reasons why they leave varies, but the report noted that teachers here pointed to the work environment and student behavior as main factors.
More aides and service staff are also leaving the state’s public schools.
In the school year 2021-2022, 938 aides and service staff left compared with 780 in the school year 2017-2018. …
The department hiring of new teachers has been stagnant. Hawaii hit its highest point in hiring with 1,380 in the school year 2017-2018, which decreased to 1,228 for the school year 2021-2022.….
HNN: About half of the teachers who resigned said they were leaving Hawaii.
read … Report: Teacher Turnover Increases In Hawaii
Guards: PSD Covers Up Drug Use At Hawaii’s Largest Prison
CB: …Official data released last week shows that more than one-fourth of 64 drug tests conducted at Halawa Correctional Facility were positive or presumed positive over the first two months of this year. But staff at the prison say the number of inmates who tested positive for drug use is actually much higher….
prison staff who spoke on condition of anonymity disputed that official account of the testing at Halawa, saying far more than 64 drug tests were conducted in January and February.
Testing done in January made it clear methamphetamine was finding its way into the prison and prompted cell searches or “shakedowns” along with additional drug testing of inmates in three housing units, the staff said. Dozens of prisoners tested positive for meth or Ecstasy use in that crackdown, the staff added….
Staff at Halawa also cited an incident this year in which the majority of 25 prisoners being transferred from the medium-security Halawa prison to the minimum-security Waiawa Correctional Facility failed pre-admission drug testing and were immediately returned to Halawa.
But Schwartz said that account is false and the testing data provided by Public Safety is correct. “Inmates did not come from Halawa, test positive and get immediately sent back to Halawa,” she wrote in the statement.
“Inmates move back and forth based on changes to their custody level,” Schwartz wrote. “If an inmate’s custody level changes to anything above minimum, they are sent to Halawa.”
(CLUE: This is not a denial. Positive drug test = higher custody level.)
Halawa ended contact visits for family and friends of inmates in 2014, and plexiglass barriers now separate prisoners from visitors. Schwartz said at the time that the barriers had eliminated a “major contraband pathway.”
However, drugs continue to get into the facility, raising the question of who may be involved.
(TRANSLATION: The guards now have a monopoly.)
Some national advocates have been critical of decisions in other states to eliminate contact visits, pointing out that prison employees are frequently found to be the people responsible for smuggling drugs and other contraband inside.
In fact, a number of prison staffers at Halawa have been accused or convicted of smuggling drugs and cigarettes into the facility over the years, and corrections officials have acknowledged prison gangs frequently control the flow of contraband inside….
RELATED:
read … Official Reports Of Drug Use At Hawaii’s Largest Prison Are Challenged By Staff
Soft on Crime: DNA Match but Alleged Killer Walks Free
MN: … 38-year-old Kimberly Belluomini, was found dead in her second-floor apartment at Southpointe in Kihei on Oct. 27, 2000.
Bruner, who said that the case has caused turmoil in the family for years, was on Maui Monday as trial was supposed to get underway for 62-year-old Anthony Moreno, who was charged with the second-degree murder of Belluomini.
But instead, Moreno was a free man after spending more than three years in prison after being indicted in December 2019….
Moreno was released from Maui Community Correctional Center Friday evening after 2nd Circuit Court Judge Kirstin Hamman granted a motion to dismiss the case that afternoon due to pre-indictment delay, said Matthew Nardi, Moreno’s attorney, on Monday….
The case was dismissed with prejudice, Nardi said, which means the same claim cannot be refiled again in that court….
During an autopsy that ruled her death a homicide, vaginal swabs were collected from the victim, according to the declaration.
In 2019 police submitted the swabs to the Scientific Investigative Section of the Honolulu Police Department to be examined for the possible presence of male DNA. According to findings in a report by the section, screening of the swabs indicated the presence of semen, and a partial DNA profile of an unidentified male was obtained from one sample.
Later, it was found that the DNA profile matched Moreno.
In a declaration more than two years ago, Moreno’s attorney at the time said the defendant had told police he met with Belluomini the night of Oct. 26, 2000 at Henry’s Bar & Grill in Kihei. He told investigators that he and Belluomini drank alcohol and danced before sharing a taxi to her residence.
Moreno told police he was with Belluomini in her apartment the night she was murdered but denied being responsible for her murder….
read … Emotions run high as murder case dismissed
Gov. Josh Green ‘simplifying’ Aloha Stadium P3 plan-now stuck with ownership of this boondoggle
SA: … Green has decided to pursue an alternate path for redeveloping Aloha Stadium in which a private partner would develop and operate a new stadium wholly or largely paid for by the state.
Under the new plan, the state would contribute $400 million appropriated by the Legislature in 2022 for a new stadium along with about 25 acres of land leased to a private partner willing to design, build, operate and maintain a new stadium in Halawa for 30 years.
The envisioned change is intended to replace a long- standing plan to have a private developer design, build and maintain — but not operate — a new stadium….
2009: U.S. District Judge David Ezra sentenced former Aloha Stadium security chief Herbert Naone yesterday to 16 months in prison
read … Gov. Josh Green simplifying Aloha Stadium P3 plan
Local zoning reform is hot topic at federal level, too
SA Column: … A new federal “Yes In My Backyard” grant program, spearheaded by Hawaii’s U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, deserves kudos for targeting barriers to new housing.
The purpose of the program, enacted in December as a part of last year’s federal spending package, is to incentivize local governments to streamline permitting, increase housing density and allow more multifamily homes by-right, according to a committee report on the bill….
2023: Congress Funds New ‘YIMBY’ Grants for Zoning Reform
read … Local zoning reform is hot topic at federal level, too
How to Stop Affordable Housing
CB: … When affordable housing as a concept is so elastic it becomes the justification stamped on every proposal, we ignore other critical problems. We overlook ticking time-bombs in agricultural sustainability, water availability, and unbalanced economic growth. Ironically, we disregard giving more scrutiny to what we ask of developers in return for the benefits they receive….
(CLUE: The debate over housing is landowners vs developers. These writers speak for landowners.)
read … 5 Tools To Disarm The Weaponization Of Affordable Housing
Lease dispute escalates over state land in Hilo
HTH: … Legal challenges against the state by a Hilo business owner whose lease agreement is in jeopardy could heat up after a hearing Friday.
Through a 2018 law, Act 149, lessees of land within the Kanoelehua Industrial Area in Hilo have been allowed to apply with the Department of Land and Natural Resources to have their leases extended by up to 40 years as long as they make certain improvements to the property, in an effort to combat decrepitude in the area.
Although that application process has been lengthy and cumbersome, a handful of lessees have been granted extensions.
One of those lessees was 69 Railroad LLC, which operates warehouses on a parcel on Railroad Avenue and whose lease the Board of Natural Resources extended by 30 years in February 2022. But even after the lease agreement was signed by both Railroad’s partners and the state attorney general’s office, the DLNR decided later that summer that the lease agreement would be revised….
read … Lease dispute escalates over state land in Hilo
‘Nobody Wants To Sell’: An Iconic Honolulu Church Makes A Difficult Decision
CB: … Faced with declining revenues, Central Union Church members vote to allow the church council to lease or sell some of its land…..
read … ‘Nobody Wants To Sell’: An Iconic Honolulu Church Makes A Difficult Decision
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