Obamacare Paycuts Pushing 900 Hawaii MDs Into Retirement
Hanabusa, DSCC Discuss Challenging Schatz
UHPA Pushes Back Against NEA Raid, Cyberattack
SB535: Illegal to Fire Your Child’s Babysitter
HB634 Obstructs Sale of Businesses With Over 100 Employees
Medical Marijuana Bills Delayed in Conference Committee
Abercrombie Appoints Darrell T Young DHHL Deputy Director
Calling All Cronies: Caldwell Announces $1.6M Cash Giveaway
OHA: Profitable Non-profits Score $8M
President Obama’s Budget Proposes to Make Wind and Solar Subsidies Permanent
US Deploys Its Newest Missile Defense System to Guam
Banner Quits Hawaii, HHSC Exec: “We’re not Going to Have Any Health Care”
SA: Legislation that would enable the privatization of eight struggling public hospitals has been gutted and replaced with a task force to study once again a public-private partnership for the Hawaii Health Systems Corp.
Two-thirds of the roughly dozen "safety net" facilities on Maui, Lanai and Hawaii island have been exploring a deal with Phoenix nonprofit Banner Health to acquire parts of HHSC to improve the quality of medical services on the neighbor islands.
A 2009 legislative study recommended a public-private partnership be forged within two to three years "in light of the financial status of both HHSC and the state." The public hospital system posted an operating loss of $143.5 million last year, while the state contributed $73.4 million in general fund subsidies.
"HHSC has been studied over and over again," said Wesley Lo, Maui Memorial Medical Center chief executive officer. "We don't even want a task force because what's the sense of studying something when you already have one by experts? Health care is in a crisis right now: Reimbursements are going down, we've got aging facilities, doctors are leaving. If we don't change the way we do business, we're not going to have any health care."….
The facilities being considered were Maui Memorial Medical Center, Kula Hospital, Lanai Community Hospital, Hilo Medical Center, Kona Community Hospital, Hale Ho‘ola Hamakua, Kau Hospital and Kohala Hospital.
Banner Executive Vice President Ron Bunnell said without legislation allowing the mainland operator to take over multiple facilities, there is no vehicle for a deal to move forward.
"It's not going to pass this year. The question is, Will it be able to pass next year?" he said. "That's too far in the future for me to make a commitment as to whether we would be in a position to operate those hospitals."
As Explained:
read … Unions Kill HHSC Hospitals
Abercrombie, Sign UPW Secret Four Year Contract Deal
SA: Neither the blue-collar union nor the Abercrombie administration would publicly release details of the agreement Friday evening. However, sources say the UPW's approximately 9,000 state and county workers would receive 2 percent raises in October and then 2 percent raises every six months until the contract expires in 2017.
Workers would also pay a 40 percent share of their health insurance premiums, sources say, down from 50 percent.
"Now it's in the hands of the UPW Unit 1 membership," Louise Kim McCoy, Gov. Neil Abercrombie's spokeswoman, said of the union's ratification vote.
read … Conspiring Together to Spend Your Tax Money
Rail opponents Confident of Victory, seek expedited hearing in appeal
SA: In December, visiting federal Judge A. Wallace Tashima refused to halt construction on the $5.26 billion rail project. Tashima did require the city to further study rail’s impact on Mother Waldron Park in Kakaako; the feasibility of an alternative downtown route under Beretania Street and the impact to cultural sites along the 20-mile route.
Opponents filed an appeal in February to overturn Tashima’s ruling. With Friday’s filed request for an expedited hearing, they hope to get a ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by the end of 2013 — and ideally before construction starts again in August or September.
“We think it would be an unnecessary waste of additional money to resume construction prior to the court’s decision,” Roth said Friday. “Nobody can predict with certainty what the court’s going to do but we believe we’re going to win the appeal.”
Honolulu Traffic Where we stand today: The Hawai‘i Supreme Court found unanimously that the State should have made a full Archeological Inventory Survey of the entire route before rail construction began and they ordered work to cease.
In our federal case, Honolulutraffic.com et al. versus the City/FTA, Judge Tashima found the City/FTA in violation of the law in three counts.
While highly unlikely, it is possible that the City could restart in 6 to 9 months. By that time we should have a favorable ruling in our federal case at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
read … Rail opponents seek expedited hearing in appeal of federal ruling
Lawmaker touts new draft of shield law as compromise
SA: Rep. Karl Rhoads, the lead House negotiator on the bill, announced the new draft Thursday. The bill keeps protections for digital newspapers and free publications, but it accepts some of Hee's amendments by making unpublished notes vulnerable to subpoenas and allowing a defendant in a criminal case to obtain some information if it's necessary to ensure a fair trial.
Rhoads said the new draft is a compromise and that the committee will revisit the issue Monday.
In his personal opinion, Gerald Kato, a journalism professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said he is at a loss on Rhoads' description of the draft as a compromise. "It's no better than the Senate draft," he said. "It shows an insensitivity to how journalism and news-gathering is done, and I hope the conferees reconsider this provision and indeed other provisions in the conference draft."
He added that it has been made clear that the unpublished-information provision in the current law is important. "Changing that as proposed in the conference draft would be devastating for journalism and news-gathering," he said.
Bill Text: House Conferees Release Proposed Draft Shield Law
read … Compromise?
Star-Adv: DHHL must tighten up its loan policies
SA: The state auditor found 20 years ago that the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) had failed to perform responsibly in carrying out that function, and, sadly, a new audit this week concludes that not much has changed.
Of the active Hawaiian homesteading accounts, nearly 260 were delinquent at least one year. Of those, 56 were five to 10 years behind and an additional 57 were even more delinquent, according to an audit released by acting state Auditor Jan K. Yamane.
The audit found that $83 million of more than $588 million in homestead loans were delinquent as of June 2012.
DHHL rules state that providing credit to those who cannot afford other financing options is meant "to preserve DHHL resources for those families most in need," Jobie Masagatani, head of the department and commission, wrote in response to the audit. However, that does not mean providing over-the-top leniency for delinquent homesteaders while others wait in line.
"By failing to identify and mitigate loan risk, and by allowing lessees to remain chronically delinquent," the audit points out, "the commission ties up both loan and land resources that could be provided to other beneficiaries and creates a solvency risk for the Hawaiian Home Lands trust fund."
It would be one thing if the commission had been cognizant of the mounting loan risk exposure and 30-day delinquencies that more than doubled from 2009 to 2011. However, the audit "found no evidence of the review of this significant increase in delinquencies." When an auditor noted that documents from a 2009 loan were not in a secured filing area, a commission specialist responded, "I know it's been years, but out of sight, out of mind."
Indeed, the department's fiscal management officer admitted to auditors that no detailed analysis had been made to determine whether the direct loan program was profitable or not.
Related: Audit Slams DHHL 'Lax Loan Management'
read … DHHL must tighten up its loan policies
Another Constitutional Amendment to Keep Soft on Crime Judges Past Age 70
AP: Hawaii lawmakers have rejected a bill that would have added a question to voters' 2014 ballots asking whether should be stricter residency requirements for candidates who want to run for the state Legislature.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Karl Rhoads says he learned Friday afternoon that the House Finance Committee decided not to fund the proposal.
Friday is the deadline for lawmakers to submit the final wording of constitutional amendment proposals to the governor. The bills would still need to pass each chamber by a two-thirds vote.
Rhoads says he's disappointed about the death of the measure he introduced….
The bill's death leaves just one constitutional amendment proposal still working its way through the Legislature, a bill that would allow the state to fund private institutions providing preschool education.
Earlier this session, lawmakers passed a bill proposing a constitutional amendment to increase the mandatory retirement age for (soft on crime) judges and justices from 70 to 80…. The Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of Honolulu opposed the measure, saying that the age limit provides an opportunity for change and fresh ideas.
read … Gene Pool
Sidewalk Nuisance Bill Designed to Fail
SA: Mayor Kirk Caldwell on Friday signed into law a bill allowing the city to summarily remove tents and other objects deemed "sidewalk nuisances."
But members of (de)Occupy Honolulu say they will challenge the new law, just as they are taking the city to court over the existing stored-property ordinance that allows the city to remove items left on city property if they have been "tagged" 24 hours in advance….
Meanwhile, real estate attorney Robert H. Thomas said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently struck down a Los Angeles ordinance aimed at removing property belonging to the homeless which may have a bearing on Bill 7. The appeals court panel ruled Los Angeles "could not presume that property owned by homeless people in the Skid Row area was abandoned, and enjoined the city from seizing and destroying it when the owner was ‘momentarily away' from it," Thomas said in an email.
"Bill 7 certainly seems vulnerable to court attack."
(Scheme: Enact a law knowing the court will overturn it. Then use the court ruling as an excuse to surrender to the Homelessness Industry.)
Your Future: Defeating the "homelessness industry" before it gets a grip on Hawaii
read … Designed to Fail?
Barnacle Bill Leads Naming Contest
LT: You are voting to name the Legislative process where a bill, without public notice, is amended to add a completely different topic.
We need a shorthand name that conveys a process that is not open, not fair, and not desirable. Cast your votes accordingly.
read … Vote Here
Maui Mayor Vetoes Bill Amending ‘Circuit Breaker’ Tax Credit for Elderly Homeowners
MN: Council Bill 16 was intended to eliminate abuse of the tax credit, but according to the Mayor, it would have also affected some qualified homeowners.
“I support the Council’s work in proposing legislation to address abuse of this important tax credit, but the flaws contained in this bill have not been adequately addressed,” said Mayor Arakawa.
According to the Mayor’s Office, if an elderly couple had put their child’s name on their house deed during the process of estate planning, they would no longer have qualified for the Circuit Breaker tax credit.
In addition, elderly individuals needing “live-in care” would also have been required to claim their nurse’s income in addition to their own, which the administration claims, could have disqualified them from receiving the tax break.
read … Tax Credit
Sewer Breaks, City Claims it is not their Problem
KHON: Larry Hurst says it’s been stinking up Elm street near McKinley High School for 2 days now.
“Oh i’m positive it’s going to flood tomorrow, there’s no doubt about it,” said Hurst.
He would know… He saw the same thing 10 years ago. The city came out and told Larry something about the sewage pipe he wasn’t expecting.
“Apparently in the 1940′s or 50′s when all his was built it wasn’t signed over to the city,” Hurst stated.
That meant the pipe was privately owned by the surrounding properties. And the city couldn’t touch it for liability reasons.
But, Larry says after some negotiations and further inspections he was told the city would assume ownership.
“The DES said the line is fine we’ll assume ownership of the line no more problems and there hasn’t been a problem for ten years,” said Hurst.
Until Thursday, he called the city for help. But, again a quick inspection of the manhole, found the problem was out of their hands. City records show the city never assumed ownership of the pipe
read … Not Ours
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