RNC Tells Hawaii Republicans: No Caucus, No Delegates
Lahaina Senator Slams Housing Plan
Tax Word Find
30% More Locals to Flee Hawaii in 2024
SA: … GUILD Consulting, a Honolulu-based management consulting firm, presents its trends and predictions for 2024:
Out-migration acceleration. The median Hawaii single-family house price exceeds $1 million, the cost of living in Hawaii continues to rise, and the number of ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) households climbs higher.
The percentage of Hawaii households able to retain enough income with at least one employed member and remain above the ALICE threshold to meet basic food, childcare, housing and health care needs will drop below 50%. The Aloha United Way annual Household Survival Budget for a four-person family living in Hawaii will rise from $104,052 to over $111,000. The Lahaina firestorm disaster will push the net loss of Hawaii residents 30% higher than total emigration during 2023.
Tech in-migration. Hundreds of employees of top Silicon Valley technology firms will continue to live in Hawaii, retaining six-figure salaries while working remotely. The state will attract even more software engineers from Alphabet, Facebook and elsewhere, despite tech CEOs issuing back-to-office employee mandates….
read … Column: Hawaii trends: out-migration, drop in government
Sand Island Rehab Recycles Ex-Cons to Work for Miske
ILind: … Miske was one of several employers who hired long-term residents in the drug treatment program at the Sand Island Treatment Center to work as laborers while his luxury home on Portlock was under construction. Some also worked for Kamaaina Termite. Many if not most of the residents of SITC are referred to the program by a judge as a condition of release from custody.
According to this email, dozens of residents used to work for Miske, and received cash and cigarettes in payment, often for doing little work.
In retrospect, the writer noted the irony. Judges had sent them to SITC, which in turn sent them to work for “a mob boss.”...
2021: Caldwell bought new building to relocate SITC
PDF: SEE Hawaii Work Employment Program Kamaaina Termite on pg 29
read … Tidbits
The witness list for the Miske trial has grown
ILind: … The two sides have now submitted their final witness lists to the court, and the numbers have grown.
The government’s witness list alone is now up to 947 names, plus the names of attorneys who may make appearances. That’s an increase of 25% over the original 758 names.
And at this point, attorneys for the remaining defendants (Miske, John Stancil, and Delia Fabro-Miske) submitted their witness list with 274 names.
However, there appears to be substantial overlap between the two lists, and the total number of names will be substantially less than the 1,221 names on the combined lists….
read … The witness list for the Miske trial has grown
Average Penalty on Oahu STRs -- $160K
SA: … The city has issued more than 1,000 notices of violation since Ordinance 22-7 took effect, and 246 of these have advanced to further enforcement. It has also beefed up its Short-Term Rental Enforcement Branch, from two to five workers, and has begun sending overdue penalties to a collections agency. There’s room for improvement here. The city must act aggressively to recover these penalties: While 29 STRs, owing penalties of $4.64 million, have been referred for collections in amounts ranging from $2,000 to $2.2 million, so far, only $14,514 on four accounts has been recovered….
(DO THE MATH: $4.64M / 29 = $160K)
Dec 22, 2023: Existing short-term Hawaii rentals may remain in operation, judge rules
read … And the Star-Adv Editorial Board Wants More
Kauai Protesters, Eco-Lawyers Kill Green Energy Project
SA: … KIUC’s plan included a higher elevation turbine to produce 4 megawatts of electricity, and a base-level operation featuring a hydroelectric turbine producing 20 megawatts of power as well as a 35-megawatt solar farm that would partly be used to feed the grid and to pump water back up to a midlevel reservoir where water would be released to produce electricity when no solar energy is being generated.
The project, designed to operate for 50 to 80 years, was estimated to provide Kauai with 25% of its energy, increase the amount of renewable energy generation on the island to more than 80% from about 60%, displace more than 8 million gallons of fossil fuel annually and cut costs for customers somewhere between $157 million and $172 million over an initial 25 years.…
read … Plan for largest Hawaii hydroelectric plant is downsized
DAGS Bumbling Capitol Security Rollout
SA: … Initially, DAGS announced that the metal detection would be added to security at the Capitol in July. This was delayed to August, and then to December.
On Wednesday, guards at one entry were checking IDs and bags. At another, they were checking IDs but not bags. And at the third security station, neither bags nor IDs were checked.
The ineffective screening took place several hours after some Hawaii senators received emails claiming that a bomb had been placed in the building, which turned out to be part of a multistate bomb threat hoax….
Saiki said the building is the only state Capitol in the country without a comprehensive security plan….
read … Security at Hawaii’s state Capitol ramps up amid growing safety concerns
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