January 18, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

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Sunday, January 18, 2026

January 18, 2026 News Read
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Alternatives to ‘pausing’ Hawaii’s income tax cuts

Idle Agriculture Funds

Opening Day: Legislative Session Begins Wednesday January 21

Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted January 16, 2026

'Cost of Government' -- Honolulu Charter Commission OKs Grassroot ballot proposal

Ag Housing: Do these rules work?

Doctor Explains how HMSA-HPH Merger will Choke off Health Care

CB: … At the center of this crisis are three forces working together: Certificate of Need laws, increasing consolidation of hospitals and insurers, and the emergence of a two-tier health care system that leaves Maui residents with fewer choices and longer waits.

In theory, Certificate of Need laws are intended to prevent unnecessary duplication of services and protect communities from low-quality providers. In practice on Maui, Certificate of Need has restricted the development of imaging centers, dialysis facilities, surgical centers and operating rooms — even when demand is obvious and urgent.

The consequences are measurable. Maui has roughly the same population as Little Rock, Arkansas — about 165,000 people. Little Rock is served by four major hospital systems. Maui has one.

That difference matters. With only one hospital system, care is rationed, waitlists grow and services that generate higher reimbursement — such as emergency care — are prioritized over community-based diagnostics and elective but medically necessary procedures.

Community partnerships with private physicians have been de-prioritized in favor of more lucrative programs, even when the clinical value is controversial. Patients are sent off-island not because Maui lacks doctors desiring to work here or demand, but because it lacks capacity and community centered mission.

Even when Certificate of Need approvals are granted, the system allows approved capacity to be held without being built. Large institutions can apply, receive approval and delay construction indefinitely. Regulators can point to approvals on paper, but patients see no improvement in access to care. Dialysis chairs remain over capacity. Imaging remains backlogged. Operating rooms remain scarce.

This is not careful planning — it is regulatory capture….

The proposed deeper integration between Hawaiʻi Pacific Health and the Hawaii Medical Service Association would intensify this dynamic. Vertical integration between insurers and hospital systems concentrates pricing power, reduces transparency, and squeezes independent providers out of the market….

read … Governor Needs To Step Into Proposed Hawaiʻi Health Care Consolidation - Honolulu Civil Beat

Somebody’s Lying: Lawmakers sitting in 2022 asked, ‘Did You Take $35,000 In A Paper Bag?’

CB: … In January 2022, a Hawaiʻi lawmaker accepted $35,000 in a paper bag from a person subject to an FBI bribery investigation. The interaction was recorded for the federal government by then-state Rep. Ty Cullen, who was acting as an FBI asset and was later sent to prison alongside former Senate Majority Leader Kalani English for accepting bribes.

The lawmaker was described by federal prosecutors as “influential,” perhaps the only helpful clue to their identity.

(TRANSLATION: Kouchi is Japanese for ‘many thousand’ -- LINK.)

In the last two weeks, we contacted every person who served in the Hawaiʻi House or Senate in January 2022 and asked them directly….

read … We Asked Hawaiʻi Lawmakers: Did You Take $35,000 In A Paper Bag? - Honolulu Civil Beat

Sen Inouye: Eliminate the Green Fee on Cruise Ships

CB: … Cruise operations already generate significant direct revenue for the state, according to the Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation. Each time a vessel enters port, it pays a range of mandatory fees. On a seven-day Pride of America itinerary with five port calls operated by Norwegian Cruise Line, passengers pay $41 per person in head taxes, generating approximately $100,000 per week for the Harbors Division.

Additional charges — including berthing fees, pipeline tolls and port entry fees — bring the total to approximately $52 per passenger deposited into the State Harbors Special Fund. These funds are essential to maintaining and operating Hawaiʻi’s harbor system.

In addition, cruise operators pay for tug services, harbor pilots, longshore labor and port security. These are not optional expenses; they are required for safe and compliant operations and are built directly into the cruise fare. Passengers also pay the general excise tax on their cruise fare, bringing total state taxes and fees to more than $200 per guest for a seven-day cruise.

Applying the 14% transient accommodations tax to the full cruise fare would more than double that burden, pushing total state taxes and fees beyond $400 per passenger. This approach fails to account for the fundamental difference between a cruise fare and a hotel room rate.

A cruise fare is not a room charge. It is an all-inclusive, per-person price that bundles accommodations, meals, beverages, entertainment and the cost associated with interisland transportation.

It is not too late to correct course on the green fee.

Unlike a hotel guest, a cruise passenger can complete an entire seven-day visit without any additional spend whatsoever. Extending an accommodations tax to non-accommodation components of the cruise fare is neither fair nor equitable.

This problem stems from late-stage amendments to the “green fee” legislation enacted as Act 96. However, it is not too late to correct course.

To create a truly fair, equitable and representative tax, the state should isolate the true accommodations portion of cruise fares and recognize the substantial harbor fees already paid into state funds currently supporting maritime infrastructure and waterfront operations.

Hawaiʻi’s policy decisions must be grounded in facts, not rhetoric nor emotion. The cruise industry pays more than its share — significantly and consistently — and plays a defining role in the state’s visitor economy.

Sound governance requires clarity, proportionality, and an honest assessment of impacts on workers, businesses, and state revenues. This standard must guide the Legislature’s next steps as it considers how to best to improve the current situation such that it works for the people of Hawaiʻi, government as well as the cruise industry….

read … The Cruise Industry And The Green Fee: Setting The Record Straight - Honolulu Civil Beat

Pressure Tactics Working: Oceanside property owners on Lahaina’s Front Street face dilemma--Sell to Maui County or wait to rebuild?

MN: … The county has reached out to owners in hopes of turning the makai side of Front Street into a connected stretch of open space to protect against flooding and create more shoreline access.

“It’s an option … if we sort of see the writing on the wall,” Jones told the Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative.

Other shoreline property owners also are facing a similar big decision as they wait for word from the county, which is currently working to get approval from the federal government to use some of the $1.6 billion in federal disaster relief funding it received last year to purchase properties….

These property owners face a more difficult path to rebuilding, because unlike owners on the mauka side, they are not exempt from special management area and shoreline regulations, which often require a longer approval process.

“There’s just been delay after delay in figuring out a process by which the makai properties can build back,” said Sne Patel, president of the LahainaTown Action Committee.

And even though property owners mauka of Front Street have a straighter shot at rebuilding, they’re also waiting to see what happens on the makai side, because decisions like building heights and open spaces could impact their own plans, Patel said….

read … Oceanside property owners on Lahaina’s Front Street face dilemma: Sell to Maui County or wait to rebuild? : Maui Now

New UH president using old Dobelle trick to pork up Administration

Shapiro: … When it comes to who leads the University of Hawaii’s flagship Manoa campus, what goes around comes around — and around and around.

UH President Wendy Hensel, hired last year at a salary of $675,000 as both system president and Manoa leader, is moving with the blessing of UH regents to hire a separate Manoa chancellor while she focuses on the overall 10-campus system.

It’s the umpeenth time UH has changed its mind on whether to make it one job or two after splitting it brought more conflict than coordination….

Kenneth Mortimer was mostly solid in holding both positions from 1993 to 2001 for a salary of $167,184.

A separate Manoa chancellor was revived by President Evan Dobelle, who in 2002 appointed Peter Englert from the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics. Dobelle made $442,000 and Englert, $254,000.

After Dobelle’s firing by the Board of Regents, successor David McClain declined to renew Englert’s contract and in 2007 installed Virginia Hinshaw, previously executive vice chancellor at the University of California-Davis.

The scenario replayed when M.R.C. Greenwood succeeded McClain and decided to move on from Hinshaw when her contract expired. Hinshaw, a microbiologist, retired to a faculty position at the UH medical school that paid nearly $300,000.

Greenwood in 2012 hired Tom Apple, a provost at the University of Delaware, as Manoa chancellor. His salary was $439,008 and hers $475,000 plus a generous housing allowance. The late Rep. Mark Takai determined that the chancellor’s office cost $6.4 million a year when staffed out.

It was deja vu anew when Greenwood resigned in 2013 following the “Wonder Blunder” scandal. New President David Lassner said he couldn’t work with Apple and terminated him. Apple, a medical imaging researcher, followed Hinshaw to a $300,000 faculty position at the medical school.

UH launched a national search for a new chancellor, but the top pick turned down the job. The regents abolished the position again and Lassner ably did both jobs at a salary of $409,000 until his retirement in 2024.

The obvious conclusion is that creating two often conflicting power centers at Manoa hasn’t worked….

read … Volcanic Ash: New UH president reopens oldie, moldy Manoa battle | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Contracts: DAGS Finds New Ways to Shake Money Loose from Lege

CB: … the real talk of the pre-game festivities last week was what the heck was up with the fire alarm system at the State Capitol. It kept going off for days. The repeated and annoying alarms interrupted many budget and informational briefings with flashing lights, loud beeps and a voice telling everyone to evacuate the building. Until a real person came on to announce that the alarms were false.

(CLUE: ‘Contracts’)

Good thing. The elevators were out (again) too as the alarms were advising everyone to get out….

(CLUE: ‘Contracts’)

Comptroller Keith Regan of the state Department of Accounting and General Services, which maintains the historic structure, says the trouble with the alarm system was all because of faulty sensors, which have now been replaced by contractor Kinetix.

(CLUE: ‘Contracts’)

“The building is half-a-century old, and there will be issues from time to time. DAGS has a long-term plan to address the overall care and upgrading of the building,” Regan said in a statement to the media.

(CLUE: ‘Contracts’)

That upgrading includes the reflecting pools (a project that has gone up in price again and is taking longer than scheduled — what a shock!) and fixing the AC system (the chamber level is now chillier then ever)….

(CLUE: ‘Contracts’)

read … The Sunshine Blog: The Session Is About To Begin. And Alarms Are Going Off - Honolulu Civil Beat

Pahoa man accused of triple homicide might finally be tried after nearly 10 years of gaming the system

HTH: … Officers responding to a call about a disturbance at the Hoffmans’ home in the early morning hours of May 6, 2016, reportedly stopped Hoffman for driving without his headlights on as he was allegedly leaving the scene. Police say a handgun was in the car, within Hoffman’s reach.

Officers also opened the trunk after allegedly seeing blood dripping from it and found the body of Aracely Hoffman, police said. The children’s bodies were found in the house….

Hoffman, who has undergone several rounds of court-ordered mental examinations, was found fit to stand trial by Nakamoto in February 2025.

Two of the three doctors contracted by the state reportedly found Hoffman fit and penally responsible, which means he understood the wrongfulness and illegality of his alleged actions at the time of the offense.

The third doctor reportedly found Hoffman unfit to stand trial and didn’t opine about penal responsibility.

Stanton Oshiro, Hoffman’s court-appointed defense counsel, in 2024 was granted the use of a private investigator, at taxpayers’ expense, to research the history of mental health in Hoffman’s family.

The defense also has retained its own mental health professional, psychologist Marvin Acklin.

Hoffman originally was found fit to stand trial in February 2017 but has gone through additional rounds of fitness proceedings after engaging in bizarre courtroom behavior and making wild and apparently unfounded accusations on the record.

He accused at least one judge, now retired, of bias against him and demanded unsuccessfully that the judge recuse himself from the case.

On Aug. 14, 2017, Hoffman said in open court the same judge and another judge, who’s since retired and died, as well as a private attorney who was once Hawaii County clerk, “have slaved me and my family for the benefit of another man.”

Aracely Monroy Urruela, originally from El Salvador, came to Hawaii 10 years prior to meeting, marrying and having children with Hoffman. She worked cleaning other people’s homes.

Hoffman also is charged with second-degree assault for an alleged November 2017 jailhouse attack on a Hawaii Community Correctional Center guard, identified in court documents as Bryson Crivello. That case remains open in Hilo Circuit Court….

read … Pahoa man accused of triple homicide might finally be tried after nearly 10 years - Hawaii Tribune-Herald

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