Insider Giveaway? Hawaiian Electric Announces Sale of American Savings Bank
VIDEO: Honolulu Fireworks Explosion Kills 3, Injures 22
City announces next two town hall meetings on proposed sewer fee increases
November Tourist Count up 5.3%
Hawaii 7th Hardest Gun Control Laws
Hawaii Top Officials Quietly Grabbing for COVID Pay Hikes
CB: … In the depths of the pandemic — with businesses closing and Hawaiʻi gripped by frightening, sky-high unemployment — state lawmakers voted to defer pay raises for state judges, the governor, his cabinet members, and themselves.
While that may have been a wise and politically astute move at the time, two of Hawaiʻi’s best known lawyers are now suggesting that action by the Legislature may have violated the state constitution.
Former congresswoman and state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and former state Attorney General Margery Bronster are questioning the legal basis for lawmakers to defer raises for more than two years for an array of top-level state officials, including the Legislature itself….
The issue comes up now because both Hanabusa and Bronster serve on the state Salary Commission, which is tasked with reviewing the salaries of top state officials and proposing raises if they think pay increases are justified.
Hanabusa is chair of the commission, which has been hearing testimony from Hawaiʻi lawmakers, Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald and others who believe various state officials and judges should receive pay raises.
As part of that process, the commission has discussed lawmakers’ decision to defer raises during the pandemic, and wondered if that could happen again.
Hanabusa asked the state Attorney General’s Office on Dec. 19 to provide a legal opinion on the matter, saying the commission wants to know if the Legislature has the authority “to mess with our work.”…
read … Did The Legislature Have Authority To Defer Pay Raises During the Pandemic? - Honolulu Civil Beat
Honolulu City Council salary set for annual automatic raises forever
SA: … New laws that go into effect with the new year include capping (automatic) future Honolulu City Council raises (capped) at 5% annually, after the Council in 2023 was approved for a whopping 64% pay hike.
Oahu voters in the November general election overwhelmingly approved amending the city charter to effect the change with 90.6% of the vote.
(Suckers.)
The change also requires any future Council pay increases to equal the average of the most recent annual salary raises for the city’s various collective bargaining units.
(Conflict of interest at the bargaining table.)
The amendment came after six of the nine Council members in 2023 accepted $44,000 annual pay raises that increased their salaries to $113,304 from $68,904.
Council members Andria Tupola, Radiant Cordero and Augie Tulba refused their raises.
The charter amendment also strips Council members’ authority to vote on (down) their own raises.
The city Salary Commission, whose members are appointed by the mayor and Council, establishes wages for municipal positions, including for the Council.
In March the commission recommended a 3% pay raise for the mayor, managing director, Council members and other elected and appointed high-level city officials. But in April, faced with a new round of community outrage over the possibility of a second consecutive raise, all nine Council members rejected bumping their salaries.
(Now the raises will be annual and automatic.)
read …Honolulu City Council salary cap, other laws take effect | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
New year begins with lower state taxes for all
SA: … Hawaii workers will begin 2025 with a little extra take-home pay starting this month when their state tax withholdings begin shrinking.
The state Legislature in 2024 passed the first of what’s intended to be seven years of historic tax cuts designed to make Hawaii increasingly more affordable over the course of the cuts.
Gov. Josh Green expects Hawaii to eventually move from the second-highest state in terms of taxes to the fourth lowest.
This month’s economic forecast by the Hawaii Council on Revenues will help Green and the Legislature pinpoint how much the state can actually spend.
The next session of the state Legislature opens Jan. 15….
read … New year begins with lower state taxes for all
Hawai‘i Has Been Arguing Over Tourist Tax since 1929
CB: … Nearly a century ago, when there were fewer than 23,000 tourists visiting Hawai‘i a year, the Chamber of Commerce put forth a modest proposal to charge a $2 tax on every visitor arriving in port.
The idea, meant to fund improvements to Honolulu harbor, was shot down almost immediately.
Yes, the Territorial Government needed more revenue, the board in charge of setting harbor fees said in 1929. But charging tourists for the mere privilege of traveling to Hawai‘i was sure to provoke resentment. Such a fee would be conceivable, they said, “only if it could be concealed.” …
REALITY: Crandall v. Nevada - Wikipedia
read … Hawai‘i Has Been Arguing Over How To Tax Tourists For Generations - Honolulu Civil Beat
The rise in mail voting comes with a price, as mismatched signatures lead to ballot rejections
AP: … He made sure to return his ballot in the virtually all vote-by-mail state early, doing so two weeks before Election Day. A week later, he received a letter telling him the county couldn’t verify his signature on the return envelope, jeopardizing his vote.
And he wasn’t the only one. Two other people at the biodiesel company where he works also had their ballots rejected, as did his daughter. In each case, the county said their signatures didn’t match the ones on file.
“I don’t know how they fix that, but I don’t think it’s right,” said Kamalo, a truck driver who persevered through traffic congestion and limited parking options to get to the county office so he could sign an affidavit affirming that the signature was indeed his….
Kamalo’s experience is part of a broader problem as mail voting rises in popularity and more states opt to send ballots to all voters. Matching signatures on returned mail ballot envelopes to the official ones recorded at local voting offices can be a tedious process, sometimes done by humans and sometimes through automation, and can lead to dozens, hundreds or even thousands of ballots being rejected.
If the voter can’t correct it in time, the ballot won’t count.
“There’s been a big push toward mail voting over the last few years, and I think the tradeoffs aren’t always clear to voters,” said Larry Norden, an elections and government expert at the Brennan Center for Justice.
He said it’s important for states and local governments to have procedures that ensure large numbers of eligible mail ballot voters aren’t being disenfranchised….
read … The rise in mail voting comes with a price, as mismatched signatures lead to ballot rejections
Miske Case: Fentanyl Mostly Arrives by Inmate Mail
ILind: … The Inspector General studied 344 inmate deaths in facilities operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons from FY 2014 through FY 2021. The deaths fell in four categories–suicide, homicide, accident, and those from “unknown factors.
The largest category was suicide, which accounted for 187 deaths, more than half of the total. Homicide was the second most frequent cause of death.
The report also found 70 inmates, or 20% of the total, had died of drug overdoses during the period. This number appears to include both suicides and accidental overdoses….
The House resolution included a section of “Findings” spelling out the concern that inmate mail is “a primary entry point for smuggling drugs into correctional facilities….”
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The Bureau of Prisons has 122 institutions located throughout the United States, employs nearly 38,000 employees, and is responsible for more than 150,000 Federal inmates….
A congressionally authorized digital mail scanning pilot program at the Federal Correctional Institution, Beckley, West Virginia, and the United States Penitentiary, Canaan, Pennsylvania, from March 2020 through June 2021, demonstrated effective interdiction technology and practices aimed at eliminating dangerous contraband arriving through the mail and served as an effective deterrent to smuggling attempts….
(CLUE: Lawyers send drug-soaked papers. It helps them retain clients.)
read … Mike Miske’s apparent accidental overdose wasn’t an isolated event
Civil Beat: Trump Good For Police
CB: … President-elect Donald Trump described himself as the “law-and-order” candidate during his campaign and promised to do things like expand the death penalty, deploy the National Guard to quell civil unrest and increase liability protections for police.
His pro-police, tough-on-crime stance is likely good news for morale and recruitment efforts, according to officials and experts.
Trump’s actions during his first term shed light on his attitude toward law enforcement. For example, he rescinded a President Barack Obama-era executive order prohibiting local police departments from acquiring military equipment and deployed soldiers to help local police quell protests….
… In Trump’s “Plan to End Crime and Restore Law and Order” released in February 2023, the president-elect said he would invest in hiring, retention and training for police officers at record levels, though he didn’t specify how much he would invest or how he would impact hiring….
Honolulu police Chief Joe Logan has said recruitment is his top priority as the department suffers an ongoing staffing shortage and is down around 400 officers….
CLUE: Civil Beat Publisher Bankrolls Conservative Group Planning Next Trump Administration
read … Here's How A Second Trump Term May Impact Hawaiʻi Police - Honolulu Civil Beat
Recycling is 100% Fake -- Reynolds Recycling Still Shipping Overseas
SA: … What we saw at these locations, particularly at RRR, were unsanitary working conditions. Workers shoveling mountains of teeming trash with no goggles, no gloves. When we asked RRR about the salaries of their employers, they ignored us. We saw workers crouched behind a rotten fence having their lunch — only feet away from trash heaps. When we asked where bales of materials were going to be shipped offshore, we got vague answers about it being handled by “brokers.”
My research into plastic pollution and waste management makes clear that these problems are not affecting Honolulu only, but locales all over the planet. …
(CLUE: Plastic should be burned at H-Power to make electricity, not dumped in Cambodian jungles.)
2023: 20 Years of Fraud--With Tokuda out of Legislature, DoH finally begins to check up on Recycling Companies
read … Column: Edifying trash tour reveals complexities | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
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