Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted July 15, 2023
Property Tax: Our council members have been listening
Auditor: Honolulu Human Resources Data Almost 100% Erroneous
How Not to Cool the Schools
Rail Ridership 21 Times Below Projections
$99M Lawsuit Shows How Much Hanabusa has Learned About how to Build Rail
Shapiro: … Pressing the Federal Transit Administration in 2022 to approve the Honolulu rail recovery plan, Colleen Hanabusa, chair of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, declared:
“If after all of the difficulties it has faced, we have not learned to build rail, then we have no right to do so. I believe HART has learned how to build rail. I ask that you look at the Airport Guideway and Stations segment of the project as evidence of this fact.”
The boast proved dubious in light of last week’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser story that reported, “A contractor building the (airport) segment of Honolulu’s Skyline rail system has sued the city agency developing the project over $99.1 million in alleged unpaid extra time and work.” …
Ridership sank to only 18,329 in the five days after commuters had to start paying. The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii estimates in the initial stage the city will subsidize service to the tune of more than $50 per ride….
Related: Rail Contractor Sues HART Over Construction Delays
Reality: www.TheRealHanabusa.com
read … Rail leaders must match big talk with performance
Can Biden Get Congress to Pay Honolulu Skyline’s operating costs, too?
SA: … Questions continue over the newly opened rail system’s ability to generate enough paying customers and fare revenue to cover current and future operations and maintenance costs — and the financial ramifications if it doesn’t and who will make up the deficit.
Skyline’s uncertain financial situation is not unusual.
The Association of American Railroads told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in an email that “our data shows no transit operations cover projects or operational costs with fare revenues alone.”
The Federal Transit Administration agrees.
“Fare revenue typically does not cover all operating and maintenance expenses,” the FTA told the Star-Advertiser in an email last week. The agency did not respond when asked how other urban systems typically cover their expenses.
The possibility of using federal funds to help cover Skyline’s annual operation and maintenance costs seems unlikely because Honolulu, with nearly 1 million residents, is too populous.
The FTA does help finance “operations for transit agencies in small urban (fewer than 200,000 individuals) and rural areas,” the FTA said.
President Joe Biden has asked Congress for the flexibility to help larger communities with rail operations and maintenance costs through the “Urbanized Area Formula program,” the FTA said. But Biden’s proposal remains uncertain in a divided Congress….
Related: Skyline's $54 per passenger operating cost highest in U.S.
read … Now running, Honolulu Skyline’s operating finances are in doubt
Blangiardi Can Sleep Easy: 64% Pay Raise Neutralizes Councilmembers Political Future
Borreca: … Honolulu mayor is the first elected public office Blangiardi has ever won, and so far, there are no major challengers wanting to take the title away from him.
Blangiardi just presided over the opening of a controversial and somewhat divisive new rail system. With rail supporters and detractors almost evenly split, how you line up for or against rail isn’t going to win or lose your election.
Perhaps the biggest Honolulu political issue has been the recent city action giving Council members a 64% pay raise….
At 76 years old, Blangiardi is still looking for challenges, not an easy slip into retirement.
The “64% pay raise” members of the City Council won’t be politically viable or be able to mount any serious challenge….
read … Assessing mayor’s reelection chances amid pay raise controversy, rail opening
Is the stalled Thirty Meter Telescope really under construction?
SA: … Is the stalled Thirty Meter Telescope really under construction?
Technically, that is true. Two years ago, former state Board of Land and Natural Resources Chair Suzanne Case signed off on a request by permit holder University of Hawaii at Hilo allowing the TMT to comply with conservation district use permit general condition No. 4, which required construction to start within two years.
While the permit was approved in 2017, Case allowed a two-year extension of condition No. 4 in 2019 due in part to the obstacles that were presented by the TMT protests that year.
Then, in 2021, Case signed off on No. 4, based on preliminary work undertaken in the summer of 2019, including a construction kickoff meeting with the civil contractor and subcontractors to review procedures and safety protocols.
But opponents of the planned $2.65 billion telescope formally challenged the construction designation in a move to reopen the 2017 contested case regarding the issue.
“There is no straight-face argument that they are constructing the TMT right now,” said Bianca Isaki, attorney for the Mauna Kea Hui, including KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance….
A hearing on condition No. 4 is being planned before the BLNR, tentatively scheduled for its July 28 meeting. But there’s a chance the hearing will be delayed due to scheduling conflicts among the parties involved….
Meanwhile, the price of construction ballooned from an estimated $1.4 billion to what’s now closer to $3 billion, and the coalition of educational and science institutions behind the cutting-edge telescope are looking for additional money to fund the project….
Big Q: Should the Thirty Meter Telescope’s permit to build be revoked?
BIN: Why Maunakea is sacred to many Native Hawaiians from their beginning to today
read … Another Thirty Meter Telescope dispute gets a hearing
Taxing Empty Homes in Hawaii Could Impact Local Homeowners
KITV: … Ahokovi said goals of an empty homes tax include decreasing home prices and increasing occupancy rates, housing stock and tax revenues — the latter to be used ideally for government affordable housing projects.
He said the main problem with that idea is "that it doesn’t address the structural problems in the housing market, namely the strict regulatory environment."
Jensen Ahokovi, Grassroots Institute –Economic Researcher says, “The solution is to reduce Hawaii's housing restrictions, it is the most restrictive state in the country. In terms of housing regulation and when you have this much red tape around housing you only increase the cost of home building and that discourages home builders from building the multi family units that we need in the state."
Honolulu Budget Director, Andy Kawano says the bill that was considered at City Hall would levy a tax surcharge in addition to a property tax. So, the empty homes tax could also hit local families.
Kawano says, “What about the local families property moves from one generation to the next, something happens there's an illness so the home that is going to be transferred sits for a while and that happens from time to time. Will the family in that situation be taxed? At the empty homes surcharge tax and have to pay10 times their regular property tax."
Director Kawano says, the city would also need to set up a system to run the program and the big question, will that cost exceed the revenue generated….
GRIH: 'Empty homes' tax unlikely to ease housing crisis, new report concludes
read … Taxing Empty Homes in Hawaii Could Impact Local Homeowners
Monster Homes: DPP Targets ‘Third-Party Reviewers’
SA: … for a second time in four months, a third-party reviewer has been found to have approved drastically oversized projects that should have been rejected.
Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP) Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna has admirably taken on the issue. “Third-party review is a privilege, not a right,” she said, in a warning to reviewers who fail to “perform at the highest level.” Those who fail to meet these standards, and “fail to properly review projects, particularly those that the community condemns, such as monster homes,” she warned, “cannot continue as third-party reviewers.”
DPP is currently evaluating the third party review program, and comparing it to other states’ operations, Takeuchi Apuna said. She expects to create a “more robust” program that includes training and more stringent qualifications, reporting requirements and evaluations.
DPP is currently updating its draft third party review rules, as well.
Another welcome step has been the implementation of third party review audits. This communicates to reviewers that their work is being monitored, and significantly, has not been done before in the nearly 20 years that third party review has been conducted here….
SA: Honolulu City Council bill targets lying to get ‘monster home’ permit
Background:
read … Target monster house scofflaws
DLNR Kicking Maui Rancher off 3,400 Acres
CB: … Brendan Balthazar never imagined that at 73 years old, he would have to reckon with giving up everything he’d built on the ranch to make way for the state.
He had mended each fence, welded every water trough and invested an estimated $400,000 into managing the 3,400-acre swath he has leased since 2006.
But the 2020 sale of the property to DLNR put the land on a new course — one destined for conservation after more than a century of ranching. The state plans to move more than 2,100 acres out of agriculture this year, and take control of the rest by 2029.
“Once you lose it, it’s gone,” Balthazar said. “It’s lost forever.”…
read … A Maui Rancher Prepares To Lose 3,400 Acres To Conservation
Wahiawa Dam Deal Multimillion Dollar Giveaway to Dole
SA: … A recently enacted Hawaii law prompting the state to acquire an Oahu dam and reservoir has been described as a gift to the state, but the state also may be giving a gift to the property’s multibillion-dollar primary owner that has profited from local land sales in recent years.
Dole Food Co. Hawaii, a subsidiary of Ireland-based Dole plc, faces fines tied to deficiency notices involving the safety of the Wahiawa dam dating back to 2009. The company claims that it can’t afford to bring the high-hazard facility up to a state standard at an estimated cost of at least $20 million.
As part of its effort to have the state assume that liability, Dole Hawaii warned lawmakers and community members that not doing so would force the company to remove the dam and reservoir, which supplies water through ditches and tunnels to its own farm operations and 50 other farms employing more than 500 people….
SB 833 appropriates $5 million to acquire the spillway property from Sustainable Hawaii Inc. led by Howard R. Green, a retired local attorney who owns agricultural businesses and the North Shore Marketplace retail complex. The bill also appropriates $21 million for spillway repair and expansion that state regulators say is needed to protect human life.
Actual costs for the acquisition and improvement work remain to be determined.
In 2022, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources opposed a similar bill because of concerns over unknown and unfunded costs.
This year, DLNR, which has been pursuing fines against Dole and Sustainable Hawaii over safety of the 118-year-old earthen dam and concrete spillway categorized as being in poor condition, endorsed SB 833 but also expressed concern over reservoir land management costs.
The state Department of Agriculture, which also supported SB 833, estimates that operation and maintenance costs for the dam and spillway after safety improvements will be $1.5 million a year….
read … Stakes are high in deal for high-hazard Oahu dam
‘A human tragedy’: AG’s Office criticized for failing to intervene in temple dispute
HNN: … The state Attorney General’s office could have prevented an ownership scandal and recent eviction of a Chinese temple in Kapalama but declined to intervene, worshippers say.
In February 2022, the Attorney General’s office received a case from Huang Tin Tin Hu temple worshippers alleging that there was suspicious financial activity among their current temple leaders.
Having claimed insufficient evidence from worshippers that assets from the temple, originally a donation to the non-profit Gook Doo Sam Heung Society, were being unrightfully diverted, the office rejected the case.
Seventeen months later, two lawsuits now accuse the Chang Foundation — a private family foundation consisting of family leaders of the temple — of not only misappropriating the property but hundreds of thousands of dollars in stocks and other investments….
non-profit law specialist and attorney Hugh Jones believes the state Attorney General’s office still has time and the ability to take action.
“The Attorney General’s power in this regard is quite broad—they can take sworn testimony, they can subpoena documents, they can obtain orders from the court requiring the return of property that was improperly transferred,” said Jones.
Jones suggests that the Attorney General’s Office should at least be involved as part of the settlement finalization process—and in the most extreme cases, can bring criminal charges….
read … ‘A human tragedy’: AG’s Office criticized for failing to intervene in temple dispute
Waikiki: 14 Criminals Hired as ‘Aloha Ambassadors’ -- What could possibly go wrong?
SA: … The Waikiki Business Improvement District Association has also invested resources into employing community outreach workers to pair homeless individuals with partner nonprofit organizations or public health assistance.
In addition, the Safe and Sound program has led us to pioneer an innovative “second chance” employment initiative that supports recently released inmates from the Laumauka Work Furlough Center (LWFC). The LWFC, managed by Oahu Community Correctional Center, serves a vital role in providing these individuals with the opportunity to maintain and enhance their job skills, earn a wage, and gradually reintegrate into society while serving their sentences.
The WBIDA has employed 14 of these individuals as “aloha ambassadors,” indicating the creation of meaningful, sustainable employment pathways….
read … Column: Waikiki ‘Safe and Sound’ program works
HB1294: The New Law To Make Transsexual Candidates Use Their Real Male Names Still Falls Short
CB: … House Bill 1294 Relating to Elections: The full legal names of people running in Hawaii elections will not be printed on ballots, but they should ….One testifier opposed the bill, saying that requiring candidates to run under their legal name who are LGBTQIA+ who don’t use their legal “dead name” shouldn’t be forced to use it. ….
read … The New Law To Make Candidates Use Their Real Names Still Falls Short
Tulsi to Team up with Trump or RFK?
CB: … Is Tulsi Gabbard seriously considering another run for president?
The former Hawaii congresswoman turned right-wing political pundit seemed to tease the idea this past week during a guest appearance on Fox News with Sean Hannity.
When asked by Hannity if she would consider another attempt for the White House Gabbard said “if there were a way for me to best serve this country in that fashion I would.”
Hannity followed up by asking if she would run as a third-party candidate. To which she offered a similarly coy response.
“I’d consider all options, put it that way,” Gabbard said….
read … Trump’s VP or RFK’s VP?
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