Governor Linda Lingle on Monday submitted a package of 168 legislative bills to the Hawai‘i State Legislature. 

Important changes include adopting a national model that establishes comprehensive standards for maintenance schedules to sustain parks, trails and small boat harbors at a measurable standard, and a new integrated project management approach at DLNR to maximize efficiency and professionalism in maintaining recreational facilities and spaces. 

RELATED: Protection Racket shakes down resort workers, ruins parks HFP June 7, 2008

Hawaii taxpayers recently paid almost $3,000 for a state employee to travel to Los Angeles for the Grammy Music Awards, according to a new report from The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii (GRIH) and premiere taxpayer watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW).

The bill would consolidate regulation of cable operators and telecommunications providers under a single entity, the Hawai‘i Communications Commission....Combining regulation of these two areas under one agency will position the state to take advantage of the 21^st century convergence of technologies that are used to provide voice, data and video services

The following letter from Budget and Finance Director Georgina Kawamura were sent to Senate Ways and Means Chair Donna Mercado Kim and House Finance Chair Marcus Oshiro yesterday afternoon. The letter outlines proposals for closing the FY09 budget gap.

Current infrastructure funding barely maintains the status quo. This plan proposes new revenue streams, generated by increases in the liquid fuel tax, state vehicle registration fee, vehicle weight tax and rental car surcharges, that would boost the amount of available funds we have from $2 billion to $4 billion for needed highway improvements statewide.

We can’t meet our responsibility by kicking the can down the road.
We must make meaningful choices now that address the reality we face today while laying the foundation for a better future.
That better future is one that transitions us from an economy over-reliant on land development to one that is innovation-driven and relies on the capacity of our people.

“A number of projects will likely be delayed, curtailed or possibly eliminated.... We will have to ask government employees, like those who work in the private sector, to accept some reduction in wages and benefits.... Some who enjoy special tax credits, exemptions and deductions will see them reduced or eliminated.”

...not since late 2001, after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon unleashed an unprecedented business, local government, and lobbyist assault on the federal bud­get, has there been such a fiscal feeding frenzy chomp­ing its way through the halls of Congress....

Based in Honolulu, WESPAC is the subject of at least two active federal investigations; one by the U.S. Department of Commerce Office of the Inspector General (IG), and another by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Governor Lingle is making the list available to the public to encourage public comment on the nominees.

Under the proposed legislation, the state fuel tax which is currently $0.17 per gallon would be raised to $0.27 per gallon, generating an estimated increase in annual revenues of $51 million.  Vehicle weight taxes, currently set at 3/4 of a cent per pound for vehicles up to 4,000 pounds, would be raised to 2 and 3/4 of a cent per pound, generating an additional $68 million in annual revenues.  Motor vehicle registration fees would also be increased from $25 per year to $45 per year, adding an additional $23.3 million in annual revenues.

As contract laborers their bodies were practically the property of the sugar planters, to be abused and even whipped with black snake whips. In several places the Japanese went on strike to enforce their demand on the planters who were daily violating a US law in keeping them under servitude....

On Jan. 14, the state Department of Public Safety opened the Hale Nani facility in Hilo, where a new re-entry program called “START” will provide education, job training and counseling for inmates a few months before their release.

Another case or Rat Lungworm disease has been diagnosed in the Kapoho-Kalapana area of Puna and more unreported cases have been revealed. The outbreak has been tied to organic farming.

If the language imposed by the Bush Justice Department in 2005 is written out of what will become the 2009 version of the Akaka Bill, the changes could impact the dynamics of Senate debate.  

The Akaka Tribe vs Hawaiians and Hawai`i: dozens of articles and informative links

Governor Linda Lingle today appointed Gilbert S. C. Keith-Agaran as the representative for House District 9, which includes Kahului, Wailuku, Pu‘unene, Spreckelsville, and Paia on Maui.  Keith-Agaran will fill the remaining two-year term of the late Representative Bob Nakasone, who passed away on December 7, 2008.

The first project focuses on improving the westbound afternoon rush hour commute on the H-1 Freeway from Honolulu to Central and Leeward O‘ahu by adding a 6.2-mile contraflow lane starting at the Radford Drive overpass and ending at the Waiawa Interchange (H1-H-2 merge).

The public discussion will center on using minimum size rules to protect harvested resource fish that may be at risk of being over harvested, and will focus on at least three main fish families that the DLNR feels may be in need of updated regulations.  They are: Parrotfish (uhu), Goatfish (weke), and Jacks (ulua/papio).