What the Honolulu rail has taught us
Green Stacks HTA Board Before 'Special' Meeting
New law could help resolve Maui’s axis deer problem
Land And Power 2023: How One Influential Hawaii Senator Is Using Public Agencies To His Advantage
CB: … A decade after his controversial Public Land Development Corp. was dissolved in the face of a public outcry, Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz is using other agencies to buy and develop land….
Instead of the PLDC, which lawmakers dissolved in its infancy amid public criticism, Dela Cruz has been using quasi-independent executive agencies that have power to buy and develop land.
In the past decade, the Agribusiness Development Corp. and the Hawaii Technology Development Corp. have funneled considerable taxpayer resources to buy land, much of it in Dela Cruz’s district. Land acquisitions have totaled more than $57 million in the past decade. That doesn’t count additional money needed for improvements, like infrastructure and buildings. …
It’s no fluke that the agencies are focusing work in Dela Cruz’s district. The influential senator has gotten allies placed in key agency positions and, as chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, steered money to the agencies. This past session, he sought to change the makeup of the technology development agency through a secretive legislative process — a move that would have removed a critic of one of the senator’s pet projects.
“It’s kind of an open secret at the Legislature that this is the pattern that’s being pursued,” said Hawaii Rep. Amy Perruso, Dela Cruz’s House counterpart representing Central Oahu communities such as Wahiawa and Whitmore Village. …
This past session, Gov. Josh Green announced he would veto two of Dela Cruz’s measures involving the HTDC. One item would have steered $50 million to build roads, electric and water systems for a campus for public safety agencies that Dela Cruz wants the HTDC to build in his district. The other measure would have removed an HTDC board member who has raised questions about the campus….
Dela Cruz’s most notable ally on the HTDC and ADC boards is Dane Wicker, a former Dela Cruz legislative staffer. Wicker is also Dela Cruz’s business partner in Kilani Brew, a Wahiawa-based company that sells loose-leaf mamaki tea priced at $200 a pound….
(TRANSLATION: To bribe Dela Cruz legally buy 100 lbs for $20,000 and get your bill passed.)
Now, Dela Cruz appears to be extending his influence to the Hawaii Community Development Authority, another quasi-independent agency with the power to buy and develop land….
Senate President Ron Kouchi, the titular leader of the Senate, has shown no interest in reining in Dela Cruz…
ILind: The senator’s strong-arming of state employees, especially when he reaches down into an agency to pressure a specific employee or office within the agency, can be seen as a violation of the Fair Treatment provisions of the state ethics law.
read … Land And Power 2023: How One Influential Hawaii Senator Is Using Public Agencies To His Advantage
Dela Cruz and Mercado Kim Slip $35M Slush Fund into Community College CIP Budget
CB: … the failure to address the university’s priorities in this year’s budget reflects a deeper and more troubling pattern in which certain legislators have sought to erode the University’s constitutional autonomy through a budget process that is increasingly opaque….
legislators are ignoring the university’s priority requests and funding their own pet projects.
This is especially apparent in the budget allocations for capital improvement projects. This year, the BOR requested $100 million for repairs and maintenance for the UH system and $25 million for repairs and maintenance at the community colleges. What they received in the final budget bill was $35 million for R&M for the entire system — a $65 million shortfall — and $85 million to the community colleges — a full $50 million more than requested….
Alarmingly, the community college CIP budget allocation includes about $35 million in a R&M slush fund that community college leadership says was unsolicited, but was made available to them by the chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee with little conversation about its specific purpose….
This reflects a concerning pattern in which powerful legislators try to micromanage the work of the university, manipulating them into building particular projects (e.g., Center for Workforce Development) that are of utility to the legislator but are not part of the UH mission, vision or purpose as defined and outlined by the Board of Regents. That is not autonomy — that is political appropriation of the resources of a nominally autonomous institution to do one’s bidding.
In contrast, important bills that were developed in collaboration with the University of Hawaii were modified at the final hour in a manner that turned them into unfunded mandates from the Legislature.
For instance, the funding sources for House Bill 554 and Senate Bill 1586 were changed from A Funds (general funds) to B Funds (tuition and fees special fund) on the day of the “cattle call,” so that the students themselves will be made to pay for these important improvements to campus safety and the work of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources….
Mercado Kim: UH Judgment In Determining Priorities Is Flawed
SA: New regents chair sees great things ahead for University of Hawaii
read … Rep Perruso
$40M Project: Pools at Hawaii State Capitol might stay dry
SA: … A lifelong problem with an elemental feature of the state Capitol — reflecting pools symbolizing the ocean surrounding Hawaii — may be cured by permanently drying up the chronic watery mess.
Two pools bracketing most of the building have been the source of leaks, foul odors and costly cleaning for decades.
But now the state Department of Accounting and General Services has more than $40 million in legislative appropriations to perhaps vanquish all the trouble by fixing leaks, along with structural damage and electrical problems they have caused, and possibly convert the water features into waterless platforms resembling pools….
“The money we have put into this building has been frankly embarrassing,” Kobayashi said….
read … Pools at Hawaii state Capitol might stay dry
Elected officials don’t have to worry about upsetting you because they know you’re full of hot air.
CB: …I couldn’t help but chuckle when I learned that certain activists were organizing to recall some members of the Honolulu City Council over the proposed 64% pay increases.
Why do I laugh? Because council members know that they can vote for whatever they want, do whatever they want, say whatever they want, and even if you should be angered by them, you’ll get over it, and they’ll stay in power….
Oahu has this annoying habit of electing bad people to office, pretending to not know how they got there in the first place, protesting when things go wrong, but then reelecting those same people come election time. Worse yet, one of the biggest reasons we have out-of-touch elected officials is because there is no consistency in the way we engage, follow-up or follow-through with people in office.
I call this “parachute outrage.” Elect someone you barely know, don’t pay attention to current events until a problem occurs that you can’t ignore, then drop in just long enough to show a fit of anger and threaten electoral punishment (which never comes).
Why is Oahu so messed up? It’s messed up because we constantly make excuses for why we don’t have time to vote, don’t have time to testify and don’t have time to pay attention to current events. When we operate on that kind of indifference or apathy, elected officials don’t have to worry about getting you upset, because when the time comes for you to actually make good on your promises, they know you’re full of hot air that just needs to be vented.
Parachute outrage results in more than just invincible incumbents or worsening conditions for taxpayers and residents. It also gradually depoliticizes the population so that people feel that they have to choose between being persecuted for being associated with anti-government radicals, or remaining silent and suffering with the little they still have. “The last attempt to throw out so-and-so went nowhere,” the logic goes, “so why should I risk my job or my reputation by getting involved in politics?”
By contrast, when elected officials see that you are always aware of what they’re doing, always communicating with them over their performance, and consistently rewarding good behavior (or punishing bad behavior) at the ballot box, they’ll adapt their style to be more sympathetic to the public. …
read … Elected officials don’t have to worry about upsetting you because they know you’re full of hot air.
Hawaii Bankruptcies Remain Near Historic Lows
SA: … Statewide bankruptcies climbed to 3,954 in 2010 and then fell for seven straight years starting in 2011 through 2017 before rising in 2018 and 2019. They then fell again from 2020 through 2022 when they ended the year with 951 cases. At its current rate with 499 at midyear, the number of filings for 2023 would be 998 — or slightly above 2022’s total….
Even though the number of cases in June rose 10.3% to 86 from 78 in the year-earlier period, filings remained under 100 for the 23rd time in the last 24 months, according to new data from U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Hawaii….
read … Rising debt steers Hawaii consumers toward bankruptcy
QUICK HITS: