Financial State of the States--Hawaii Ranks 45th
Imagine Maui being an even more expensive place to live than it is now
Honolulu empty homes tax proposal advances out of Council committee
UPDATE: Territorial Bank Postpones Merger Vote
$500M of COVID Money but Test Scores For Hawaii Students Show Little Progress
CB: … The state has received over half a billion dollars in pandemic support, but there's been no tracking of which investments and programs have actually improved student learning….
Test scores released last month showed that 52% of Hawaii students were proficient in language arts last year, compared to 54% in the 2018-19 school year. Approximately 40% of students were proficient in math, down from 43% before the pandemic.
Advocates have been calling for years for the Hawaii Department of Education to provide greater detail about how schools are spending Covid relief funds. With funding ending this fall, a bigger concern is emerging over the lack of information about what the federal investment has achieved.
Principals say federal funds have supported student learning by enabling schools to purchase new curricula, hire more staff and expand access to tutoring and after-school programs. But there’s little information on what initiatives have resulted in the greatest student improvements, even though school leaders will likely need to convince lawmakers next year that the state should spend its own money to continue pandemic-era programs.
The DOE said in 2021 that it would fund a three-year study to assess how different strategies helped middle school students recover from the pandemic, but spokesperson Nanea Ching said the initiative hasn’t been started. She did not say if the department still plans to move forward with the study….
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read … Test Scores For Hawaii Students Show Little Progress Despite Major Funding Boost
Speaker Negotiations: Elephants Like Peanuts
CB: … In 2010, the fight once again spilled into public view and dragged on through December, threatening to disrupt the start of the session. It appeared the dissidents had a better chance then ever. Enter my boss — Rep. Gene Ward, House Republican leader.
At the time, I was the director of House minority research, which put me in charge of drafting any memo or press release put out on behalf of the Republican caucus. So I knew early on that Ward entered into a conversation with Say about using Republican votes to break the stalemate. And, I spent many hours prepping negotiations that ranged from what exactly the members could say to the media to what we should demand in return for our support.
Watching Say operate as speaker felt like a free masterclass in political negotiations. At the end of it, the Republican caucus “offered” all of their votes. Say said he was honored to have their endorsement, but he wanted to work within the Democratic caucus first.
Ward helped Say regain the upper hand. Now, he wanted the rest of the Democrats, but he didn’t actually need them. For their help in breaking the stalemate, Republicans didn’t get any leadership positions or office upgrades. We did, however, get a bigger staff budget, and the speaker supplied staff meals for long weekends. Because, yes, everything is up for grabs in these negotiations….
read … Beth Fukumoto: There's More To Choosing A House Speaker Than Meets The Eye –
EPIC fail? Homeowner sues county over building permits
HTH: … The owner of a home in Milolii Beach Lots is suing Hawaii County, claiming its Electronic Processing and Information Center system — known as EPIC — has trapped him in a permitting Catch-22 that only will allow him to demolish his house, not to remodel or live in it.
Specifically named in the lawsuit is the Board of Appeals and Public Works Director Stephen Pause….
County tax records indicate that Ausman purchased the 336-square-foot beachfront cottage — which was granted a building permit in 1987 and completed in 1989 — on May 6, 2021, for $275,000.
The original building permit, issued on Dec. 10, 1987, is listed as expired, while an alterations permit issued to the previous homeowner on Jan. 8, 2020 — just prior to the novel coronavirus pandemic — appears to be on hold, with its status listed as “incomplete visit.”
“When I bought it, they sold it to me with permits to remodel the home and bring the remodeled parts to code. It was kitchen, bathroom, solar, deck, stairs, electrical, plumbing, catchment — that kind of stuff,” he said.
“And when I bought it, I did all the due diligence. I called the county to check all the permits. Everything was OK in 2021. Fast forward, I started the work in 2022, because in 2021, everything was kind of, like, locked. I called the county for inspection in March. They never came. They’d call to push it. They’d say, we’ll come in a week or two, and then, they’d never show up.”
Ausman said a building inspector “eventually showed up” in June 2022.
“He looked at me, and he said, ‘Your permit has expired,’” Ausman recalled. “I said, ‘How come? It’s supposed to expire in 2025.’ He said to me, ‘No, it expired yesterday, June 1, 2022.’ They said the day the EPIC system went live, it expired.
“I showed him the permit, and he said, ‘No, not the remodeling permit. The building permit doesn’t have a final (inspection),” he continued. “I said, ‘That’s not possible. If the building permit doesn’t have a final, you would not have issued me a remodeling permit.’
“And in October of 2022, I got a letter from the Department of Public Works saying that the entire house is unpermitted because they cannot find the records of a filed permit, of a final inspection for the permit of ’87. It says I have to pull all new permits, bring the house to current code, lift it and move it out of the (shoreline management area) and all that — basically, asking me to tear the house down.
“And I’m like, ‘No, I can’t do that. It’s just not possible.’”
Ausman then went to the county’s Board of Appeals where, in his words, “I lost.”
“At the Board of Appeals, they said that the director, Pause had been right in canceling all my permits, because my permits had been issued in error,” he explained….
read … EPIC fail? Homeowner sues county over building permits
DHHL Grants Itself Building Permit After Sitting on Empty Apartment Building for 23 Years
SA: … DHHL acquired the long-vacant, two-story apartment building, which is on a 20-acre industrial parcel adjacent to Kalaeloa Airport, in 2001. In 2021 the agency was approached by another entity to turn the building into a homeless transitional shelter, and since then DHHL has been exploring doing the same thing for its beneficiaries….
(DO THE MATH: 2024-2001 = 23 years)
To expedite construction, DHHL Director Kali Watson signed the building permit for the $6.3 million project funded by the federal government, representing the first “in-house” building permit approved by the agency for itself. More “in-house” building permits are planned.
Typically, building permits are the province of county agencies that receive, review and approve applications. But DHHL, under federal law that created the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act over a century ago, is not subject to state and county regulations over land use and development….
read … DHHL forgoes county building permits | Honolulu Star-Advertiser (staradvertiser.com)
State Pays $20M Student Loans for Health Care Workers
SA: … Hawaii’s $30 million program to pay off student loans for health care workers — up to $50,000 for each of two years — means that Maui parents Angel and Louise Batoon can be more certain that their son, Luke, remains in the islands to continue his nursing career….
the state Legislature approved his $30 million proposal two years ago to launch HELP.
When the next legislative session begins in January, Green plans to propose an additional $30 million to help the next group of health care workers pay off their loans over the subsequent two years….
The program was so flooded with initial applications that it’s now running low on money, and in September was down to $10 million….
read … Hawaii’s loan forgiveness program helps ease the burden on health care workers’ families
City seeks $115,000 to defend against civil rights suit
SA: … Honolulu is asking for more legal fees to defend against a 2023 federal civil rights lawsuit alleging three Honolulu Liquor Commission investigators subjected another investigator to discrimination, harassment and a hostile work environment based on his sexual orientation and race after starting his job with the city in 2022.
The request comes as a related federal trial is now underway against the city regarding a Chinatown nightclub and an LGBTQ+ guide to the islands who accuse the city Liquor Commission and some of its investigators of anti-gay discrimination in a case filed two years prior.
Both cases are intertwined….
read … City seeks $115,000 to defend against civil rights suit
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