Posted on: Monday, July 7, 2003

Letters to the Editor

Hey, Democrats: The state is broke

I am like a lot of people, sick and tired of the name-calling every time something doesn't go the Democrats' way. Why can't they figure this out?

Recently, it was Richard Port whining, and now senators are commenting concerning the bills the governor vetoed and her TV address.

Sen. Willie Espero claims Gov. Lingle is "going to put her spin on everything, and that's what's going on. And we need to make sure that the public is clearly educated, and don't just listen to this slick administration but listen to your legislators, who you elected to serve you." Since when is it "spin" to tell it like it is? The state is out of money.

Sen. Robert Bunda is going to hold public hearings to "find out if there is a groundswell of support out there." Never mind doing the right thing, not spending money we don't have; just find out if you can get enough votes to make it worth the trouble of trying to override a veto.

Who is "slick" and who is "spinning" whom?

Governor wrong on long-term-care plan

Gov. Linda Lingle's veto of the Hawai'i Long Term Care Financing Program shows that she missed a golden opportunity to do something meaningful and creative about solving the long-term-care problem facing our state.

The governor says that (1) the benefits for the program are only for one year, (2) the trust fund could be raided by future Legislatures and (3) the starting monthly tax of $10 a month is regressive. The facts are:

(1) The benefits from this plan are for 365 days, not one year. The days do not have to be consecutive. Therefore, if the need is for home-care services for only one day a week, the benefits would be available for seven years. If the benefits are needed for two days a week, the coverage would be for three-and-a-half years, etc.

(2) The legislation provides that the funds may not be spent for any other purpose than paying long-term-care benefits. The fund could not be legally raided.

(3) The legislation was set up to provide for a flat, monthly tax for all taxpayers. This flat, monthly tax was deemed affordable, easy to administer and actuarially sound. However, the permanent board of trustees could look at this funding method and make any adjustments that would be equitable and actuarially sound.

The facts are as one Hawai'i legislator put it: "This legislation is the best deal in town." The thrust of this proposed legislation was to allow our Hawai'i citizens needing long-term-care services to remain at home where they belong.

Gov. Lingle clearly missed the boat on this one.

New 138,000-volt line would benefit many

The article on the front page of your June 24 edition describing HECO's proposal to construct an underground 138,000-volt line between its Kamoku substation in Mo'ili'ili and its Pukele substation at the upper end of Palolo Valley did not mention the very important additional benefits that this 138,000-volt option would provide for all of HECO's Windward and East O'ahu electric utility customers.

In addition to protecting the critical high-rise customer loads in Waikiki, closing the Kamoku-Pukele 138,000-volt loop would defer or eliminate the necessity of constructing an additional 138,000-volt line from Halawa over the Ko'olau mountain range to the Ko'olau substation in Kane'ohe and also an additional 138,000-volt line into the Iwilei-School Street area.

If you disconnect one of the three existing 138,000-volt lines supplying power to the Ko'olau substation, which in turn supplies the Pukele substation, and a second Ko'olau line trips out, the third line can become overloaded. That would cause the third line to automatically trip off. As a result, all electric power for East O'ahu, from Kahuku to Hawai'i Kai to Waikiki, would be lost.

Because the combined Pukele-Ko'olau load is about one-quarter of the island's total load, a sudden loss of a load of that size might cause the entire O'ahu power system to become unstable.

Because power would flow both ways through this proposed Kamoku-Pukele line, the Kamoku substation would be able to support some of the load on the Ko'olau substation and the Pukele substation would be able to supply extra power to the School Street and Iwilei substations during maintenance and line-out emergencies.

Wild cat population becoming a nuisance

Cats have been walking around the Wai'alae Iki neighborhood for a long time. They leave their poop in front of our houses, and we are forced to pick it up.

My neighbor puts cat traps all over the neighborhood and so far caught about 20 cats. I have also seen them squeezing through gates and climbing walls. After the cats climb the walls, they leave trails of paw prints.

To get rid of this cat problem, we all should not feed the cats so they won't come back. You could also call the Humane Society and tell it that there are stray cats all over your neighborhood.

Everyone should do his part to curb the wild cat population.

'At-risk teens' won't get needed services

I find it very interesting that as a result of the governor's use of her line-item veto powers, one swoop of her pen resulted in no services to "at-risk teens" in the Kalihi area.

The governor's Office of Youth Services has not allotted any money to provide youth service centers for at-risk teens in the Kalihi area. One of the line items that was cut was to do that. Now there still is none. That is a travesty.

I hope the state Legislature has the courage to do the right thing and not wait for a groundswell of popular support. The people who need these services, conveniently for the governor, are those who are also politically disenfranchised and will not be part of the groundswell. Do the right thing.

Neighbor Islands could also participate

In response to the June 30 editorial "A carrier at Pearl? Intriguing possibility," I must comment that the vision must be statewide, not confined to the island of O'ahu.

I also understand your concern of building a larger military presence in Hawai'i, and again in today's world environment, the military presence must be welcomed.

Could the vision be the storage and maintenance of carrier aircraft at Keahole, Hilo and Kaua'i, and not Barbers Point? The carrier at San Diego has its aircraft in San Francisco and Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona.

The carriers do enter and dock in Pearl Harbor. Modifications could be made at the dry dock to handle maintenance of the carrier stationed in Hawai'i.

Could the vision be the extension and expansion of the runway at Barking Sands for the C-17s required for the Strykers? Hilo remains an international airport that could also house and maintain the C-17s. Training for the Strykers would be split between training areas and particularly at Pohakuloa, Hawai'i.

A huge economic boost for the state, you bet, and better yet, an economic boost dispersed to other counties. Hawai'i's new beginning for a larger vision of economic growth.

'Critical mass' is just a smoke screen

The United States Supreme Court, in an oxymoronic decision that ignores the Constitution's 14th Amendment guaranteeing the individual (not racial group) equal protection of the laws, rules that the University of Michigan's admission policy seeking a "critical mass" of minorities is OK as long as no "quota" system in involved.

How, pray tell, will the University of Michigan determine it has critical mass unless it sets goals or targets or, dare we say, quotas?

An article in your June 23 newspaper notes that the University of Hawai'i seeks "diversity" by "enhancing" admissions for Hawaiians and Filipinos and other underrepresented minorities. How will the University of Hawai'i judge whether the "enhancements" have done the job?

Perhaps a quote in the same article by Amy Agbayani, director of the UH Student Equity, Excellence and Diversity Office, gives some clue. She speaks of a "shortfall" of Hawaiians and Filipinos and other underrepresented minorities in the student population. Sound like quotas at work here?

If racial discrimination can be disguised as "affirmative action" and "enhancements," I suppose that, in the minds of some, "critical mass" is a perfectly acceptable smoke screen.

Easing quarantine was right thing to do

I applaud Gov. Linda Lingle for recently signing administrative rules that ease quarantine requirements. It's proof positive that the Lingle administration has opened doors leading to genuine reform.

Special accolades should go to the chairwoman of the Board of Agriculture, Sandra Lee Kunimoto, and her deputy, Diane Ley, for ferreting out the facts and getting the job done.

As recently as this past legislative session, House Democrats and some Senate Democrats opposed any changes to the quarantine system. A group comprised of animal lovers — lawmakers like Reps. David Pendleton and Bud Stonebraker, the Coalition for Quarantine Reform led by Chris Quackenbush, military personnel and the Hawaiian Humane Society — organized a press conference at the start of the legislative session to voice its support for the changing of the quarantine rules.

It's also important to point out that the Democratic leadership on the agriculture committees uniformly killed any legislation that provided reform, despite efforts by these groups that uniformly and consistently testified and supported the changes.

It's ironic that quarantine head Dr. James Foppoli, who testified recently before the House Agriculture Committee supporting the quarantine changes, was one of the leading opponents of reform. I'm hoping that Dr. Foppoli will continue to support additional reforms, such as reducing fees and the 120-day pre-arrival waiting period.

Outside funding for Jones isn't the point

Regarding David Bell's June 28 letter that half of June Jones' salary will be paid by outside sources: That is not the point for many people.

After 30 years, I recently returned to the University of Hawai'i-Manoa as a graduate student in early childhood education. The building our classes are in is dilapidated, and the classroom is crowded and uncomfortable.

It is pathetic to see private business support June Jones so he can earn more than three-quarters of a million dollars per year while there are so many other needs on campus. Sadly, this is a reflection of our state's values. This is what makes Jones' salary "ridiculous."

Hawai'i Health Systems needs to get act together

Though I applaud Gov. Lingle's no-nonsense approach to attempting to balance the budget in these difficult times, I also applaud the Legislature for making the politically difficult decision not to bail out the Hawai'i Health Systems Corp. (HHSC) with the $45 million it had asked for.

HHSC was created to be autonomous and independent of taxpayer monies. Sadly, ever since its inception, HHSC has been operating in the red. Every year it goes to the Legislature with a begging bowl, seeking handouts, and so far the Legislature has obliged at the taxpayer's expense.

The reasons for HHSC's fiscal inadequacy are myriad; mismanagement and inefficiencies of a quasi-civil service organization are prime. For example, last year Hilo Medical Center spent a million dollars to install an electronic system to monitor the whereabouts of nursing staff. The system has not worked as it should.

This year it is investing thousands of dollars on a home monitoring system (of dubious value) for patients that is not going to be reimbursed by Medicare or health insurers. To anybody who runs a business, this is simply poor decision-making.

Furthermore, HHSC's contention that the state hospitals lose money because they have to take care of the indigent without reimbursement does not fly. COBRA laws ensure that no one who needs emergency medical attention can be turned away by a hospital emergency room based on the ability to pay. This applies equally to state hospitals as well as private ones. It is a level playing field.

Yet privately managed hospitals do not make the annual pilgrimage to the Legislature to bail themselves out. Despite the challenges of insurance cutbacks and the rising costs of healthcare delivery, they have, somehow, managed to remain fiscally sound.

It is high time HHSC learned to cut its coat according to the cloth. It needs to stop hemorrhaging taxpayer money and become truly "autonomous." Perhaps its CEO, Tom Driscoll, who is paid in excess of $250,000 annually, could learn a thing or two from our no-nonsense governor when it comes to balancing a budget.