Carlisle plans mayoral run (Finally, a Honolulu Mayor will be a crime-fighter instead of a criminal)

So if Mayor Mufi Hannemann resigns to run for governor as is widely speculated, Carlisle will resign as prosecutor to run for mayor. But if Hannemann chooses to finish out his four-year term, Carlisle will run in 2012.

"It is my intention to run for mayor when it is vacated by Mayor Hannemann," Carlisle told reporters yesterday at a news conference just outside the lobby of Alii Plaza, home of the prosecutor's office.

Carlisle would have to be considered at least one of the early favorites. Elected four times by O'ahu voters to Honolulu prosecutor and now in his 13th year, he has considerable name recognition to go with an established and battle-tested islandwide campaign team.

By announcing his intentions early, Carlisle also places himself in a good position to be ahead of the pack in terms of campaigning, fundraising and drawing endorsements and supporters....

Carlisle said he supports moving forward with a "steel wheel on steel rail system" as approved by O'ahu voters in a recent city Charter vote. Carlisle said he also supports starting the rail line in West O'ahu as "a matter of equity" since both East Honolulu and Windward O'ahu residents have seen substantial drive-time improvements in recent years....

Carlisle has previously been associated with the Republican Party. All elected city seats are nonpartisan and Carlisle yesterday said he has been nonpartisan as prosecutor and would continue to be so as mayor.

Advertiser internet-polls Carlisle 4-1 over nearest competitor: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/section/pollarchive

KITV: Carlisle Announces Run For Mayor

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Democrat Borreca: Revenue drop heightens Lingle's call for labor cuts

Lingle yesterday released new tax collection figures that show a drop even worse than the 9 percent decline estimated last month by the Council on Revenues.

The final figures show Hawaii actually lost an extra $56.7 million, which Lingle estimates puts the budget shortfall at $786 million through June 30, 2011. The previous shortfall was estimated at $729 million.

"It is important to recognize that we will not be the same government when we come out of this process,"  (Yippie!) Lingle said in remarks to reporters at the state Capitol. "We have billions of dollars less money. We can't possibly look the same or act the same."

In a shot aimed at the stalled labor talks between her office and the four public worker unions, Lingle said everyone has to note the changes.

"The world has changed. We need to respond to it. There are some people who cannot yet accept that the world has changed dramatically over the past year and everyone has to accept that," Lingle said.

Advertiser: Time for unions, management to cut to chase (Basically just a smoother rendition of Borreca's July 8 panic attack.  The Dems. are very nervous this whole thing is blowing up in their face.  They should be.  It is.) 

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Hawaii revenues down 9.4%, worse budget gap than expected

KHNL: Lingle: Layoffs 'likely by the end of the week'

State House Speaker Calvin Say, D-20th (St. Louis Heights, Palolo Valley, Wilhelmina Rise), said Lingle has options beyond resorting to layoffs. He said Lingle could impose spending restrictions, call lawmakers back into special session if she believes there needs to be an immediate response on the budget, or wait until the next session in January and work with lawmakers on a solution.

"At this point, there is no urgency," Say said. "There is a deficit and she has to go through what her administrative responsibilities are. She can implement more restrictions. She can implement whatever she has to do financially, or she could make a request for a special session to call us back. But she has to have her proposals in hand."

Lingle has said she has no plans to call lawmakers back. She also said it would be more difficult to make up the budget shortfall next session. The council will make two new revenue projections before next session — in September and January — and the governor described the gap lawmakers will face as a moving target.

"The problem with delaying decisions is that the problem gets worse the longer you put it off," she said. "It would be no different than in your home, if you had a credit-card bill and you put off paying it, the bill grows. It gets harder and harder to pay over time, especially because your salary didn't change.

"And, in our case, our salary is going down and down, further and further each projection. So if you don't deal with it now, it becomes much more difficult to deal with it later because you have fewer options and you have fewer days left in the year to deal with it."

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Oahu electric rates will rise at least 4.7%

No date yet set for increase in electric bills; state might allow an additional 2% hike....Hawaiian Electric Co.'s customers on O'ahu will see their average monthly electric bill increase by $6.48 under a rate hike approved by the state Public Utilities Commission.  The PUC approved an interim 4.7 percent rate hike for HECO's 294,000 customers, and that will raise company revenues by $61.1 million.

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Plan to build Kauai home over native burials raises legal issues (OHA trying overturn Burial Council and steal a single family residence from its owner)

More than 1,000 human remains were dug up at the proposed site of the Ritz-Carlton hotel at Honokahua before public protest and government action led to the hotel moving inland and remains being reburied where they had been found. Soon after, the current burial law was enacted.

It is that law that Native Hawaiian rights advocates say is being tested by the Kaua'i case, in which California developer Joseph Brescia is building a home on top of six of the 30 identified Native Hawaiian burials on a 15,667-square-foot lot in Naue.

At issue is whether a key element of that law — the decisions of island burial councils — has any real power.

"I think it is accurate to say that Naue is the first case of an attempt to reverse a burial council determination by interpreting preservation to include building on top of iwi kupuna previously identified," said Alan Murakami, the Native Hawaii Legal Corp. lawyer representing two Kaua'i residents who seek to stop construction. "It is a historic first — a distortion of the intended result and process outlined in the statute and regulations."

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Isle developers consider impact of 'Great Recession'

One economist says full recovery will not occur until credit eases and tourism improves....

There are "green shoots" -- signs of recovery -- in Hawaii's real estate market, but they will need serious fertilizer to take root.

Shrinking inventory and growing affordability are among the most visible green shoots emerging in Hawaii real estate, the panelists said. But full recovery will not be possible until consumer confidence returns, the credit market eases and the health of Hawaii's tourism industry improves, nourishing these tender shoots, they said.

"Oahu prices are vulnerable to downside risk. I expect we could see another 10 percent drop and that the (single-family) median may be around $525,000 to $530,000 next year," he said.