SB286: Solomon Decision Allows Legislature to Define 'Permanent Resident'
Could Repeal of the Jones Act Actually Happen?
VIDEO: Why does Hawaii oppose Jessica's Law?
Solomon: Hawaii 'On The Verge Of Bankruptcy'
CB: During floor session in the Hawaii Senate on March 7, Big Island state Sen. Malama Solomon strongly defended a bill that sets up a public-private-partnership authority to help spark development.
While critics have said the authority too closely resembles the much-maligned and soon-to-be-repealed Public Land Development Corporation, Solomon said the PPPA would help create jobs and improve the economy.
"We are on the verge of bankruptcy — 2016," she said. "That's what we are talking about here, you know?"
Reached by Civil Beat the next day, Solomon said "we" means "Hawaii" and the cause of bankruptcy would be the state's unfunded liabilities when it comes to health and pension benefits promised to public workers when they retire….
Currently, the state's total net assets are about $1.6 billion, but the amount of unfunded liability each year is $520 million and growing.
"So, if you do the math, in three years basically we should expect the state to have a negative balance sheet," he said.
Here, however, Young said it is important to understand some context. Remember, states can't file for bankruptcy….
BOTTOM LINE: Regarding Solomon's statement, the claim contains elements of truth; if Hawaii were a business, it would indeed be heading quickly toward insolvency.
read … Solomon
Another Homosexual Child Predator busted? This Time at Kamehameha
KHON: Alleged nude images were taken without students' knowledge, possibly at the faculty apartment of a Kamehameha Schools teacher. Multiple teenage boys were questioned at the school last week, a longtime teacher was fired on the same day the allegations surfaced, and police have launched an investigation….
Multiple sources tell KHON2 several high-school-age boys were asked by school officials whether they had any knowledge of inappropriate conduct, including nude images taken without their knowledge, regarding the teacher in question.
KHON2 approached attorneys who have handled other cases of alleged teacher misconduct to see if Kamehameha Schools students and parents had reached out for help, and in fact they had, to Michael Green.
"The reason I was contacted was children were interviewed for hours, young people," Green said. “When they questioned the kid, there were things he didn't know that had happened, there were things that he had concerns about that may have happened to him."
SA: The "school has indicated to the children it had to do with inappropriate sexual contact on the part of the teacher," Green said.
Related: $5M Settlement in Homosexual Rape Gang case at DoE Blind-Deaf School
read … Another One
PPPC: Counties Will be Able to Exempt Projects?
SA: While counties were opposed to the PLDC law, they have given their support to the PPPA bill, as long as the state will not be allowed to exempt projects from rules of any government agencies, including the counties'.
Honolulu City Council Chairman Ernest Martin said it's important that any exemptions from county statutes or other rules be subject to the Council's approval.
While the PLDC was given broad authority to go forward with unspecified public-private projects, the PPPA would require that projects — limited to specifically three at this point — bring revenue to the state.
This authority would last only five years, after which legislators could decide whether expansion would be worthwhile.
In the continuing search for smart ways to monetize underutilized land resources, the PPPA proposal is not the only one still alive this legislative session.
read … PLDC Take Two
Mayor pushes gas tax hike, pegs average cost at $21.45 a year
SA: The administration released calculations to the Star-Advertiser on Thursday night showing the fuel tax hike would cost the average motorist $21.45 more annually, a figure it calculated using 2011 state Data Book figures that determined the average Oahu driver traveled 8,726 miles and used 429 gallons of fuel that year.
On Thursday afternoon, six of nine Council members expressed their reluctance to vote for a fuel tax hike.
Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi noted that the tax would have an adverse impact not just on the typical family driver, but also on companies that rely on trucks, vans and buses to transport goods and people.
"The delivery trucks are going to be taxed, also, and then they're going to pass on their increased cost to the store and the store is going to pass on their increase to the consumer," Kobayashi said during a Budget Committee meeting. "The same with all the utility trucks and repair trucks."
Councilman Ikaika Anderson said the gasoline tax is not a sustainable source of revenue in the long run. The amount of revenues generated from the tax has not increased over the last five years even as the number of registered vehicles on the island has increased significantly.
The anomaly has been attributed largely to an increase in electric vehicles that don't need fuel or, in the case of hybrid vehicles, need to visit gasoline stations less often.
read … Tax Hike
GMO crops could trigger another Green Revolution
SA: For six millennia we humans have deliberately manipulated genes; modern corn is as distantly related to its wild ancestor as a Chihuahua is to a wolf.
In 1944, American biologist Norman Borlaug began 30 years in Mexico developing new strains of wheat. Borlaug crossed stubby-stalked dwarf wheat with high-yielding varieties. This resulted in a plant that was both extremely productive and strong enough to hold up a large cluster of grain as long as it was well fertilized.
After Borlaug's new wheat increased the productivity of Mexican wheat sixfold, agronomists bred ‘semi-dwarf' rice plants. The world went from food shortage to food surplus even as the postwar global population doubled.
read … Richard Brill
Only 28% Would Vote for Abercrombie for Governor
Here are the horseraces for governor:
- Hanabusa: 55%
- Abercrombie: 28%
- Don't know: 15%
- Refused: 2%
And U.S. Senate ...
- Hanabusa: 54%
- Schatz: 32%
- Don't know: 13%
- Refused: 0%
read … Exploratory
CB: At The Legislature Today
Boylan: Thursday, March 14, 8:00 pm Legislative Update
read … At the Legislature
Counties Skeptical About Election Day Voter Registration
Borreca: It has not exactly been hoisted up and marched around the building by cheering Democrats, but House Bill 321 did move from the House to the Senate and is expected to be heard in the Senate.
When the bill was before the House, it won broad support. The state elections office gave it a thumbs up with some suggestions to tweak the details.
The county clerks, however, were not impressed, saying that more training, computer equipment and procedures are needed before joining the Election Day bandwagon.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Clayton Hee says he is exploring ways for the bill to work, but wants more numbers filled in on the costs.
"This is the sort of thing that would have to be set up with much lead time," Hee said.
read … Registration
House Judiciary Approves Marijuana Decriminalization Bill
PR: The state House Judiciary Committee moved a bill Thursday that would decriminalize the possession of up to one ounce -- or about 20 grams -- of marijuana and set a civil penalty at $100.
The Senate had set the fine at $1,000 as a sweetener for the House to consider decriminalization, which lawmakers had previously rejected.
read … Political Radar
Corruption Studies: Potential Growth Industry for Hawaii
DN: But no joke, or actually, only a little joking, a Google search indicates that one can study corruption and that if one gets good at it, it could be a path to jobs. “Over the last 10 to 15 years, (corruption) has become much more trendy, some would even say a sexy issue...” said Martin Kreutner, head of the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) in Vienna and a former Austrian anti-graft prosecutor. [trustlaw.com, Corruption studies expand as academic topic, path to jobs, 12/13/2012]
CB: Cash Call: Rep. Takumi Holds Fundraiser During Session
read … Corruption Studies
More than 2,000 teachers protest lack of contract at Capitol
SA: More than 2,000 public school teachers converged on the state Capitol this afternoon to protest the lack of a new labor contract.
Teachers have been working under a "last, best and final offer" the state imposed in July 2011 that included pay cuts and a larger share of health insurance premiums.
The state and teachers union are in negotiations for a 2013-15 contract.
Best Comment: “Where's the parents camping out in the Gov's office this time around? No where because a republican isn't in office.”
SA: "One way or another, we're going to make something happen," an educator says
CB: Contract Protest Draws Thousands of Hawaii Teachers
KITV: Public school teachers have the state seeing red
read … Protest
Community key to creating programs in middle schools
SA: One of the successful programs Tsutsui said he hopes his initiative can emulate — but in most cases on a smaller scale — is a middle-school sports pilot program going on at five target schools in the Nanakuli-Waianae and Kau-Keaau-Pahoa areas.
The three-year program kicked off in October and is funded entirely by $1.3 million in donations from organizations and individuals such as the James and Abigail Campbell Family Foundation, Bank of Hawaii, Kamehameha Schools and Board of Education member Keith Amemiya.
Tsutsui said he has met with a number of business leaders over the past two months and "just run into overwhelming support for programs like this."
read … Community key to creating programs in middle schools
Broken Trustee Joins Ritte in Atrazine Hype
AP: According to Honolulu-based attorney, Broken Trustee Gerard Jervis, the U.S. Department of Agriculture found atrazine in water samples taken at Waimea Canyon Middle School in 2011. Craddick said the chemical could have traveled through the air.
CB: Lawmakers Call for Study on Health Risks of Popular Weed Killer
read … Trust Jervis?
Advocates urge lawmakers to adopt preschool bills
AP: Hundreds of children, parents and education advocates descended on Hawaii's Capitol on Thursday to spur lawmakers to vote for Gov. Neil Abercrombie's preschool initiative.
The rally came a day after the House Committee on Education adopted three bills relating to the cause. The proposals passed the Senate last week but are still waiting to be heard by the House Judiciary and Finance committees….
Interactive learning would cost the state up to $3,000 per child, which is one- third the cost of learning at a conventional preschool center, Naone said. The option is particularly important for Native Hawaiian families who may have had negative experiences in traditional schools, she said.
Along that line, education advocates also hope that the state could fund home visiting programs in which educators visit families in their homes.+
KITV: Early education advocates rally at the capitol
Related: Abercrombie 'School Readiness' Plan Based on Proven Failure
read … KSBE
Prisons chief wants new tests to gauge guards
SA: As a state Senate committee plans to look into an escape and a homicide in Hawaii's prison system, Public Safety Director Ted Sakai said Thursday he has a plan to improve training and recruitment screening of corrections officers.
Sakai said the Department of Public Safety wants recruits who are better qualified and to give them rigorous training.
In the meantime, the enlistment of new recruits has been suspended for about three months, but some 31 persons already recruited will receive improved training, department officials said.
By June 1 the department hopes to have new application exams and an improved screening process for physical agility. The current recruit class will not have to undergo a new application process and screening.
Sakai's comments follow numerous errors by corrections officers that led to the escape of murder suspect Teddy Munet from outside Circuit Court facilities Feb. 20.
read … Testing
Honolulu Rail: A Textbook Case Of Poor Planning, Denial And Diversion
CB: Honolulu rail’s planning and forecasting is suspect. Now renowned professor Bent Flyvbjerg of Oxford University dares to reveal the bigger picture: The American Planning Association is suspect. Here are five passages from his assessment.
read … Panos Prevedouros
Kauai Dam Breach Tragedy Still Not Resolved 7 Years After 7 People Were Killed
HR: There was devastating decision in 1997 that started with illegal grading around a Kauai dam that led to the main spillway being covered, resulting in a tragic breach nearly a decade later that left seven people dead. The man who the state attorney general said is responsible for the breach was supposed appear in court today, seven years to the day after the breach, to end the years of drama surrounding the criminal case with an admission of guilt.
read … Seven Years Later
Hawaii’s Favorite Gun - Who Owns It and Why
HR: In the past several months the AR-15 rifle has gone from the most popular firearm in the country to the most infamous. Among many people, it is now the most sought after.
read … AR15
New health insurer to set up shop
SA: Having another health insurance company will not lower rates unless that company can get doctors to accept lower payments, said Gary Lee, a principal with Mercer, a New York human resource and benefit plan consultant.
"The only way it's going to help competition is if the new health plan is able to lower the reimbursement to providers for the same services," Lee said. "I see little chance of success competing with the incumbent carriers, two of which (HMSA and Kaiser) control 90 percent of the bloody marketplace."
Family Health Hawaii's entrance into the market comes as the state prepares to launch on Oct. 1 the first health insurance exchange, known as the Hawaii Health Connector, designed to provide individuals and small businesses access to more affordable health insurance policies as part of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Family Health might consider being part of the exchange, Schmidt said.
Summerlin Life and Health Insurance Co. was the last health insurer to try its hand at the competition, opening in Hawaii in 2004. However, it withdrew from the market in 2010, after selling its membership portfolio to competitor HMAA.
"There may well be some folks who worked with Summerlin who will be working with this company," Schmidt said. "The pool of talent of people who have the expertise and know the Hawaii market is not that big. They'll want to make sure they have a team with good experts and good knowledge of the health insurance market in Hawaii."
read … Health Insurance
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