DHHL

Hawaii has one of the highest State Tax Rates in the United States, and yet the State Legislature is considering many new increases in taxes including income, excise, and other fees.  Are you Taxed Enough Already?

This project uses tax and rate payer money to enrich a privately held corporation. It bills itself as “green” when it is actually a corporate boondoggle to put a billion dollars every four years into one man’s pocket.

After two years of marketing the alleged horrors of the non-existent “Pacific Garbage Patch”, environmentalists, big business, and big government are ready to cash in.

Ever since I visited the decrepit wind project at South Point on the Big Island I realized that wind farms are investment schemes, not reliable energy production plants. So did T. Boone Pickens with his multibillion dollar order of GE wind turbines for his “Pickens Plan,” a plan that has been abandoned because wind energy makes no business sense....

If the majority of the lawmakers and Hawaiian Electric Co. get their way under Senate Bill 367 — the bill designed to finance an interisland cable — the Oahu ratepayer will be solely responsible for the cost of the project, predicted to cost somewhere between $500 million to $1 billion.

As defined, the offense of violation of privacy in the first degree involves the installation or use of “any device for observing, recording, amplifying, or broadcasting another person in a stage of undress or sexual activity in that place.” – Attorney General Louie

Analysis by Thomas R Cannon, Architect AIA, Chair of the Maui County General Plan Advisory Committee.

Fontaine, who represents South Maui, will have access to an exclusive bank hot line on behalf of constituents and other Maui homeowners who are having difficulties with their mortgage payments. BOA’s goal is to establish contact with the customer within one business day, and to provide a response the legislator’s office and to the borrower within 20 business days on the specific issues of the inquiry.

HB1101: Allows for increase in the State motor vehicle registration fee

HB1097: Extends the $3 per day surcharge on rental motor vehicles

“This bill primarily affects property crimes and takes repeat offender status away from those kinds of crimes.  As a police officer I’ve dealt with this many many times where we’ve had people that have gone out and habitually burglarized homes, stolen cars all to fuel their drug habit….  And I feel that we need to have that repeat offender status for these kinds of crimes because of the fact that we do have these people that are just habitual criminals….”  -- Rep George Fontaine (R-Kihei)

The March edition of Mission Houses Museum’s “Talking Story”, which focuses on themes of myths, legends, and fables in 2011, will take place on Wednesday, March 9^th at 7PM in the Kana‘ina Building on ‘Iolani Palace grounds.  Admission is free.

It has been a busy two months in office. So far there have been floods in Kihei and Maalaea, rockslides on the pali, a ban on plastic bags and a push for a major film production studio. And that was just January.

Mayor Alan Arakawa will be attending and will make opening remarks, as well as speaking about his plans for West Maui....

HONOLULU – The Regents Candidate Advisory Council (RCAC) has presented a list of candidates to Gov. Neil Abercrombie to fill four seats on the University of Hawai’i Board of Regents, including two City and County of Honolulu seats, a Hawai’i County seat and a Maui County seat.

Location: Kalama Heights Retirement Home, Garden Room

Date: Friday, February 18th, 2011, 6:30pm

Cost: Free and open to the public!

Senator Charles Schumer and other congressional leaders have called on government safety agencies to investigate why such elevated levels of lead are coming into contact with our food and leaching into the environment. Perhaps even more alarming, a University of Arizona study found fecal coliform bacteria and E. coli in some of the bags.

EPA standard for lead in packaging materials is 100ppm.  Safeway tests 6.72 times the EPA limit.  Walgreens is 2.98 times, KTA Superstores 2.85 times, and Defense Comissary Agency tests 2.35 times the EPA standard. 

Amends chapter 37, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to include agency-wide technology and computer systems with an estimated useful life of greater than seven years as capital investments to allow all costs to be financed with bond funds and depreciated as capital investments.

Fontaine: “We heard from a Maui roofing contractor who said that if he received a $70K fine … he would have to earn $7M in additional business in order to make up the fine because his profit margin is so slim.”

Oahu:  Wednesday, Feb. 2nd, 11:30 am to 1 pm

Maui: Wednesday, February 2nd, 5:30 to 8pm

Thanks to the high cost of motor vehicle fuel--which in Hawaii includes the second highest gasoline taxes in the country at 63.5 cents per gallon--people have started buying alternative cars and cars which get better fuel mileage. The unintended consequence of increasing the cost of motor vehicle fuel is that there is less money going into the state coffers....

Maui’s County-wide plastic bag ban goes into effect January 11, 2011.  No EIS has been required.  Here’s what they are hiding:

The PEIS will examine the program-level impacts of the development of up to 400 megawatts (MW) of wind energy on Maui County, the transmission of the energy to Oahu via an undersea cable, and the integration of that energy into Oahu’s electrical grid.

Governor-Elect Neil Abercrombie today named Kalbert Young as the Budget and Finance Director; and Sen. Dwight Takamine and Audrey Hidano as the team heading up the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations as its director and deputy director, respectively.

Better Government Dec 2010 with Representatives George Fontaine (R-Kihei), Arron Ling Johanson (R-Aiea), Gil Riviere (R-North Shore) and Gene Ward Ph.D (R Hawaii Kai). 

...the greatest gift he gave them was their transformation from a disordered, lawless throng exiled in desperate anarchy into a living community built on Jesus Christ, a community in which they learned to care for one another.

According to Council committee agenda, “The purpose of the proposed bill is to lower the home exemption from $300,000 to $200,000, for tax years beginning on or after July 1, 2011.”

The result of such a move would be to sharply increase residential property tax bills.  Calculated as a percentage, the tax hike would fall disproportionately on those whose homes have lower real estate values.

Today, Tuesday November 16th, the Maui County Council will be accepting public testimony regarding a big proposed property tax increase. If you can make it you can sign in to testify by 1:30 pm on the 8th floor of the County building.

Governor’s Veterans Day Ceremony, Nov. 11, 1 p.m., Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery, 45-349 Kamehameha Hwy., Kaneohe. Gov. Linda Lingle will give remarks.

We will be flag and sign waving at 1 PM till 2 PM, to show our appreciation for our Veterans on the corner of Kaahumanu Ave and Kanaloa Ave.

"There is an awareness all over Hawaii Nei that Mahealani Ventura-Oliver of Ko Hawaii Pae Aina-Hawaii Loa Foundation has made the Hawaiian people victims of her fraud and selfishness…." -- Br. Christopher Fishkin, Franciscan Hermitage, Wailuku, Maui

Minority Leader Representative Gene Ward said, "Our new Caucus is excited and united and ready to do the people's business, particularly regarding fiscal responsibility and job creation in the 2011 Session.  We are very pleased to have grown 33 1/3 percent representing the first net-gain in the size of caucus in 10 years." 

HONOLULU - Duke Aiona and Lynn Finnegan today launched a new radio ad, "Twice," to highlight recent endorsements, such as the Hawai‘i Tribune-Herald, Maui News, Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Hawai‘i, Maui Chamber of Commerce and Hawai‘i Island Contractors' Association.

“I am pleased that MHLA’s Board of Directors has taken this action to publicly endorse Duke Aiona and Lynn Finnegan,” said MHLA Executive Director Carol Reimann. “The visitor industry is the largest employer of Maui County residents and we must have government cognizant of the industry’s needs.”

HONOLULU - Duke Aiona and Lynn Finnegan today unveiled their policy agenda for Native Hawaiian issues. First as a judge, and later as Lieutenant Governor, Duke Aiona has been instrumental in advancing Hawaiian causes and tackling issues that disproportionately affect the Hawaiian community.

Subsets of the 14-member Political Action Committee met with candidates to identify those who were friendly to businesses. To receive the Chamber's endorsement as a "business friendly" candidate, each candidate had to meet a minimum score equating to 60 percent of the total points possible.

Duke Aiona and Lynn Finnegan's opponents did not meet the minimum score to qualify for an endorsement.

Hawaii Right to Life, in partnership with Pearson Foundation of Hawaii, invites you to a special pro-life presentation and charity benefit featuring the Reverend Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro Carámbula, Chaplain of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

Arakawa commented, “Randy Piltz’s opinion and influence in this community is substantial and this was made evident by the large number of votes he received in the primary.  I am most pleased with my meetings with Randy and valued the opportunity to discuss our platforms which revealed tremendous similarities in our philosophies.”

Primary Election Vote on Saturday, September 18, 2010 -- 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

ARE YOU SICK AND TIRED OF:

• Paying the highest taxes in the USA?
• Joblessness and Unemployment?
• Too much government regulation/intervention?
• Voice of the people being ignored?
• Out of control government spending of tax $$$?
• Slowly losing your Individual Rights?

If your answer is "yes," then take these names to the polls on Saturday, September 18....

VOTE EARLY! Here is a complete list of Walk-in absentee/early voting sites and hours for all four counties.

Results in a pilot study "Native Hawaiian Perceptions of Violence as a Means to Attain Sovereignty" show a sharp contrast between the number of Native Hawaiians interviewed who believe violence is justifiable to achieve sovereignty -- 6 percent -- and the number who believe "the desire to gain sovereignty will result in violence in the future -- 53 percent. Only 24.8 percent felt that violence would definitely not occur.

...the meeting was disrupted by many Hawaiian Sovereignty proponents who dominated the session with loud and acrimonious statements....