Posted on: Tuesday, October 14, 2003

Letters to the Editor

Stop construction on Lunalilo Home Road

I think the city should stop construction on Lunalilo Home Road.

The city wants to make the lanes narrower. There are so many new houses being built in that area, and narrower lanes will create more traffic in the mornings and afternoons. The city will also probably have to put more traffic lights along the road because there are so many intersections that will be blind-sided after trees are put in or whatever else is planned.

Doing this to the road will cause a lot of confusion and a lot more traffic.

Red light runners should be targeted

I am sitting at a red light and calculating what the planned car tax increase will cost me. The light turns green and three cars come through their red light to turn down Dillingham from King. I have never waited here without scofflaws running that red light, much like what happens up the road at Liliha and Vineyard.

My calculations take a turn: Three cars every few minutes, probably 10 hours a day, five days a week, that's a lot of tickets at what, $50 each? = $2,500/hour, $25,000/day, $250,000 for 10 intersections.

Admittedly, as word gets out, revenues will decline, but what's wrong with that? It will mean that people are driving safer and with more courtesy.

Can we bring back those traffic cameras, at least for catching people who run red lights? Please?

Our salary priorities are out of whack

When, after five years, teachers with master's degrees earn about $9,000 less than bus drivers with a high school diploma, and when the UH football coach gets paid almost four times as much as the U.S. president, our priorities are way out of whack. Even some teachers support the coach's salary. They argue that football brings in a lot of money, but so do professors.

In 1998, university professors pulled in $160 million in grants. They are not allowed to tap into that money for their own salaries. Athletic programs build spirit, health and community. All good things. Public servants should be paid enough to live well where they serve. There should be differentials for quality and years of service, but when do the differences dip into the realm of greed? The UH football coach's salary is 16 times more than the average teacher salary.

That is greed. Why do people support greed? Why does the state give tax breaks to organizations donating money to the coach's salary when there is not enough money to give teachers even a cost-of-living increase? There never seems to be enough money for education, but football programs operate with extreme excesses.

Let's stop supporting this insane inequity. Let's imagine how we could put education and sports back into balance in this country. What if, for example, professional athletic teams all contributed .5 percent of profits to support physical education and athletic programs in kindergarten through university public schools? I bet they could meet every public school's budget comfortably. Then maybe states would have enough to pay its teachers an equitable salary.

Court system should also be scrutinized

I thought David Shapiro's column was an opinion piece — space to opine, muse, question. I don't always agree with Mr. Shapiro's thoughts but often value his insight and always value the function he performs in stating them.

In regard to the Gary Rodrigues bail ruling: considering conviction on 101 counts and a sentence that, according to Peter Wolff, federal public defender, is just over half the time possible for the offenses, many people questioned the proceedings well before Shapiro's column of Sept. 1. Mr. Wolff seems to imply that criticism of a federal institution that can protect us from the growing power of yet another federal institution — the executive branch — is unwise.

Really? Then has no one ever heard of abuse of power or criminal behavior by members of the federal court? To the contrary, it seems unwise not to question all government institutions without running the very risk to which Mr. Wolff alludes. If something is rotten in Denmark, one's suspicions about the origin may well be both ill-considered and erroneous ... but it still smells.

Video cameras could settle fish-catch issue

If the risks to endangered turtles and marine life are as low as longliners and gill net fishers say, surely they would agree to use technology to gather data on these practices?

Instead of sending along observers on only 20 percent of the fishing vessels, remote sensing techniques — in this case, wireless video cameras — could be mounted on 100 percent of fishing vessels to monitor the catch and observe fishing practices. Video monitoring is cost-effective and non-obtrusive.

If science-based biology is really what fishery councils want, this is the perfect solution. Environmentalists, fisheries experts and fishermen could agree to gather real data on the controversial fishing practices. With clear evidence, the matter would be settled in short order.

Tax codes responsible for insurance mess

It seems inevitable that cost-cutting efforts by employers and HMSA will reduce service to patients. I just hope the public realizes the tax codes — not the employers and insurers — are responsible. That is because the federal and state tax codes intentionally make company-paid premiums tax-deductible and individual-paid premiums taxable.

An employer who spends $5,000 per month for an employee can pay a $1,000 premium and give the employee $4,000 as taxable pay. Or the employer can pay the entire $5,000 to the employee ... but then the employee must use $2,000 to pay the $1,000 premium. Half of the $2,000 first goes to taxes (federal, state and Social Security). That leaves the employee with only $3,000 in taxable pay.

The result? The tax penalty is just too high to own our own insurance. Then we can't take the policy with us when we change jobs, and that chains us to our employer. It also means that the insurance contract is between employers and insurers. We, the patients, are irrelevant, especially when cost and service-cutting is considered.

Ending this tax discrimination against the individual would free us from being chained to our employers by insurance we can't take with us. As contract holders, instead of bystanders, we would also have more say about service.

Issues of crown lands, annexation are settled

Jon Osorio, in his Oct. 8 letter, is wrong about the crown lands and wrong about annexation.

In 1910, Lili'uokalani sued the United States, claiming her private property, a "vested equitable life interest" in the crown lands, was taken without compensation.

The court ruled that, under kingdom laws since 1865, the monarch did not personally own the crown lands; they were owned by the government to support the office of head of state. The court held that, when the monarchy ceased to exist, the crown lands became part of the public domain and passed ultimately to the United States. The matter is settled.

Pursuant to the Annexation Act, the United States then held the crown and other ceded lands in trust for all the people. In 1959, the United States returned them to Hawai'i. They are still held by the state for the benefit of all of us. None of the lands was stolen.

The argument that annexation could be accomplished only by treaty and not by joint resolution was raised vigorously but did not persuade other members of Congress in 1846 for Texas or in 1898 for Hawai'i. The powerful interests opposing both annexations could have filed timely actions to litigate the issue. None did. The world and the billions of people born since then have moved on.

In Territory of Hawaii vs. Mankichi (1903), Justice Harlan said: "By the resolution, the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands became complete, and the object of the proposed treaty, 'that those islands should be incorporated into the United States as an integral part thereof, and under its sovereignty was accomplished.' "

The matter is settled.

There has to be a limit on raising city taxes

I do not understand how the Democratic council members, and the people who vote for them, cannot understand there has to be a limit on raising taxes to "balance the budget." Just about everything that can be taxed is now being taxed, and taxes continue to be increased.

The mayor seems unable to recognize what is needed but endorses projects to enhance his image.

Honolulu is headed toward bankruptcy in the near future unless the binding arbitration clauses are removed from union contracts. It makes no sense for someone not familiar with our situation to tell us what we have to pay union members. And along with that, the promise of no layoffs has got to go.

Also, state legislators must get to work and run this state rather than relying on the unions and a few judges to call the shots. Perhaps the pay for full-time legislators needs to be raised to attract qualified folks. Time is running out.

A great loss for us

The passing of Maestro Robert LaMarchina is a great loss for the community, the state and the arts.

To paraphrase the signature close of his PBS series some years ago: His music said it all.

We must invest in our children

We who live in the land of Aloha take pride in caring for those around us, especially our keiki. Based on results, however, I believe we are smugly deceiving ourselves.

While many of us drive huge, gas-guzzling vehicles and purchase outrageously expensive homes, more and more homeless families live on our beaches and in our parks, our drug problem soars out of control, our public schools are shamefully underfunded, our parks deteriorate, and our public library system cuts hours.

If we cared about our children, we would fully fund the need for shelter, education, job training and counseling to help our neighbors — and our keiki — who live in crushing poverty with little hope for the future.

If we cared about our children, we would build a world-class public school system rather than a world-class aquarium. We would not have elementary school classes of 30-plus, middle school and high school classes of 40-plus, and middle and high school teachers instructing more than 160 students. We would not expect our public school students to excel in sweltering classrooms. We would not have severe shortages of teachers, principals and vice principals. We would not have hundreds of millions of dollars of school repair and construction delayed for funding that never comes.

If we cared about our children, we would offer them fully staffed, well-maintained parks with evening and holiday programs, and we would extend, rather than cut, our public library services. Why? Because our children need safe, positive alternatives to drifting about with little supervision and nothing constructive to do.

People often warn that if we don't take care of our children, we will "pay a price." Well, for years we have not taken care of our children, and we are paying a terrible price: the ice epidemic, soaring property crime rates and dismal student test scores. We avoid many of our parks and beaches because they have become homeless ghettos and centers of drug use and trafficking. And now we must build new prisons and drug treatment centers, diverting sorely needed funds from our schools and social programs.

Shame on us!

We must invest in our keiki. If this means paying higher taxes, so be it. It is time to put our money where our mouths are. If we continue doing what we have (and have not) been doing, we will continue to reap the same tragic results. Our children are waiting for the spirit of aloha to materialize.