December 21, 2025 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Sunday, December 21, 2025

December 21, 2025 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 3:07 PM :: 145 Views

Bill 9 Creates Legal and Economic Crisis

I bet Santa would agree about CON laws

Appointed Sen Lamasao fails in Gambit to Appoint Husband to House Seat

CB: … one name that won’t be on the list is that of Justin Cadiz. He is married to Lamosao (they met at Miske’s M Nightclub) and under the kind of strange nominating process used by the party had made the final list on Friday. Cadiz himself and Lamosao were among the five Democrats submitting nomination signatures on his behalf.

(Akamai readers will now pause to meditate on the fact that Lamasao took $2000 from Friends of Ty Cullen after he was arrested.)

But Cadiz, a civil engineer (Hawaiian Dredging) ~~and community volunteer~~, withdrew from the nominating process “to focus on his family and personal responsibilities,” Oʻahu County Committee Chair Lynn Robinson-Onderko told The Blog.

… The Blog hears that some Democrats were troubled by the appointment process that seemed to give some candidates an inside track over others, particularly Cadiz.

Meantime, as of Saturday morning, the three remaining finalists for the House seat, all of them from Waipahu, were (corrected to induce accuracy):

CWS CHILD ABUSE ADMINISTRATOR: Daisy Hartsfield, an ~~attorney and a social justice advocate focused on health care, education and stable wages~~ (administrator of the Social Services Division overseeing the Child Welfare Services Branch within the state Department of Human Services who has the gall to seek this appointment after all that happened on her watch).
A LABORERS UNION LOBBYIST: Maurice T. Morita, a former ~~public school teacher and active community member serving on the Waipahu Neighborhood Board~~ (lobbyist for HSTA and Laborers Union Trust Fund).
A DOCTOR: Inam Rahman, a physician and small business owner ….

(QUESTION: Can Green stand to not be the only doctor in Hawaii politics?)

read … The Sunshine Blog: A Glitch Shrouds Effort To Fill Waipahu House Seat - Honolulu Civil Beat

Work Hasn’t Begun but … Hawai‘i Convention Center roof repair climbs to $87M — a 70% surge

SA: … lawmakers are questioning why the rooftop repair has climbed from a $51 million estimate to $87 million — or $110.5 million with contingencies. Sen. Sharon Moriwaki, vice chair of Ways and Means, who handles capital improvements for the Senate, said the Legislature has already provided $100 million for the center — including $64 million for the rooftop repairs and another $36 million to accelerate other essential renovations to the building….

Orton said that canopy costs rose from $14 million to $21 million purely because of tariffs and the cost of steel to reinforce the weight….

The project also faced internal turmoil after HTA’s former finance vice president, Isaac Choy, was terminated in September and later sued the state. DAGS has since stepped in to help manage the process.

Orton said delaying construction further would push completion into 2028 and force more cancellations. Eighteen “citywides,” the industry term for large events that utilize multiple venues, have already been displaced in 2026 and 2027….

Vieira said the project must be completed by the end of 2027 — and the timeline must be credible. “If you have one delay and people are afraid to book, they won’t book later,” he said. “Miss the cycle and you won’t get them back until the 2030s.”…

Vieira noted that the transient accommodations tax was increased in 1999 to support the center and the newly created Hawai‘i Tourism Authority. …

Leaks have plagued the center since 1999 (because the roof was purposefully defected to generate more work) ….

read … Hawai‘i Convention Center repair climbs to $87M — a 70% surge | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

The $3B Plan for 2026 Legislative Session Centers on Tax Hikes

SA: … Green predicts that the state will be searching for $3 billion in needed funds….

“So we’re OK, we’re not going to have to make cuts to services or people, but we passed a $5.5 billion tax break for our people to make things more affordable,” Green said in television news report. “That $5.5 billion tax break will probably come down a little bit with the work that I’ll do with the Legislature, down to about $4 billion.”

(TRANSLATION: $1.5B Tax Hike)

“We have $1.6 billion in the rainy day fund. I will not be surprised at all if, after the Council on Revenues makes their decision on, I believe, Jan. 7, as to what the economy is doing, if we aren’t even tighter, and that’s likely going to trigger use of some of those rainy day funds,” Green predicted….

(TRANSLATION: CoR is a political animal. They make numbers up to manipulate the legislative process.)

governor says he is pushing ahead with plans for a reelection campaign. So far there has been no speculation of any opposition within his own party, nor from the GOP….

(TRANSLATION: Hawaii’s political class is devoid of ability.)

read … On Politics: Bloom is off Hawaii’s rosy financial picture | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Hawaii’s young adults struggle to launch amid skyrocketing costs

SA: … Across Hawaii, young adults describe similar stories — working more hours than expected, delaying plans and trying to find stability as rent, tuition and necessities climb faster than wages. Salary.com estimates a single person in Honolulu pays about 53% more than the national average for basic expenses. Median rent sits around $1,799 a month, and the median resale price of a single family home recently topped $1.1 million. Meanwhile, per capita personal income — about $69,900 in 2023 — hasn’t kept pace….

A 2024 Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii summit on cost‑of‑living pressures and talent loss underscored growing concern about young professionals leaving the islands. Residents ages 25 to 34 make up 13.8% of Hawaii’s population but account for 24.3% of those moving away, according to a state study by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, referred to as UHERO….

Yamauchi-Ranan has thought about moving elsewhere, like Texas, where rent is lower….

read … Hawaii’s young adults struggle to launch amid skyrocketing costs | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

HART CEO gets $350K following citywide pay raises

SA: … The board of directors for the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation has approved a new 4% pay raise for Executive Director and CEO Lori Kahikina to continue to oversee completion of the more than $10 billion Skyline project.

Kahikina, who received a three-year, $336,000 annual contract in September 2024, will now be paid $349,440, following a $13,440 “salary compensation adjustment.”…

(DO THE MATH: $350K /10,000 daily rides = $350 per ride / 365 days = nearly $1 of every ticket.)

read … HART CEO gets $350K following citywide pay raises | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Fire HMSA to Save Medicaid

SA: … Hawaii turned Medicaid over to private insurance plans in 1994 and 2009, and the managed care plans added ever-increasing prior authorizations and formulary restrictions, with the result that doctors began to refuse new Medicaid patients. Financing Medicaid through capitated private plans also adds administrative costs of around 13% of total Medicaid spending — and the real figures are likely higher because poor oversight by MedQUEST, incomplete data reporting from the plans, and use of multiple subcontractor costs reported as “health care” enable plans to disguise substantial administrative costs as “health care.”

Removing the middle-men from Medicaid could relieve administrative burdens imposed on primary care practices due to abusive prior authorization policies and also free up money from the state budget to improve payment and support for primary care.

Like Hawaii, Connecticut privatized Medicaid in the 1990s, but in 2012 that state fired the managed care middle-men and started paying primary care doctors extra to manage care instead of expecting insurance companies to do that. Connecticut’s Medicaid spending promptly fell by about 13% due to administrative savings. …

read … Column: Excise middle-men from Hawaii Medicaid | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Honolulu Police Commission Still Bumbling Through the Process of Picking Someone to Pick the Chief

CB: … The Honolulu Police Commission continues to stumble its way through the process of hiring a new police chief. At its meeting last week, commission vice chair Laurie Foster, who is directly involved in trying to hire an executive search firm to finally begin the search for a new chief, told her fellow commissioners that something was in the works but she’d been told not to talk about it.

Told by who? She couldn’t say.

“I can’t discuss the hiring process,” she flatly stated. “It’s been delayed again.”

She wouldn’t say why.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” responded Commissioner Chris Magnus, a veteran police chief who has dealt with local police oversight boards in at least three cities (four if you count Honolulu). “I’ve never heard of a limitation of this nature.”

Magnus and Blake Parsons, the newest member of the commission, were clearly flabbergasted that they were being shut out of what is arguably the most important thing the commission does — hiring the police chief. They pointed out that an update on the hiring was on the agenda and, well, they wanted an update….

read … The Sunshine Blog: A Glitch Shrouds Effort To Fill Waipahu House Seat - Honolulu Civil Beat

Hawaii County PD chief applicants narrowed down to 11

HTH: … Eleven candidates for the Hawaii Police Department’s vacant chief position will receive invitations to be interviewed next month by the Hawaii County Police Commission.

Those interviews are scheduled to be held Jan. 29 and 30, 9 a.m. both days, at the Council Chambers of the West Hawaii Civic Center in Kailua-Kona.

Each interview will be conducted in public, in person. None will be conducted online. Applicants will not be allowed to be inside the chambers while others are being interviewed.

Commission Chairman Rick Robinson, who presided over his final meeting Friday, told the Tribune-Herald during a break at Friday’s commission meeting in Hilo that the new chief will be selected at the end of the process on Jan. 30….

Michelle Simmons, head of the county’s Human Resources Recruitment Division, told the commission Friday that out of about 40 applicants, 27 met the county’s minimum standards and were sent candidate questionnaires, and 22 completed and returned those written queries….

read … HPD chief applicants narrowed down to 11 - Hawaii Tribune-Herald

SHOPO: Only Insiders Need Apply

CB: … In policing, experience matters. It matters a lot. But that’s lost on the commissions. Ask yourself, of the three chiefs who left their posts this past summer, how many of them had experience as a chief, deputy chief or assistant chief? Which one had experience in working with unions or administering the employer discipline system? Which one spent just as much time being a cop as they did being an administrator?

The answer is none of them. The reason is that the selection process is completely disconnected from the reality of police department operations…

read … The Honolulu Police Commission Doesn't Know What HPD Needs - Honolulu Civil Beat

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