Letters to the Editor

Legalized gambling would cure our woes

To remedy the money problems of the education system, the imminent state worker pay raises, the growing problems of social services and the prospect of Hawai'i going bankrupt, we should raise taxes — property taxes, cigarette and alcohol taxes, taxes for retirees, sales taxes, gasoline taxes, auto registration and safety check fees, etc. — taxes we all know the state will consider.

Or we could consider legalized gambling, lotteries, casinos, horse racing, bingo, card rooms, etc., for revenues that would stay in Hawai'i and help out our economy.

Wake up, Hawai'i; everybody is doing it.

Focus on the traffic problems in Makakilo

Continuing (and seemingly unrestrained) housing developments are adding to already existing traffic problems in Makakilo. Over 1,800 new homes are planned on the hill in the next two years, adding several thousand more people to Makakilo's population of 14,000. Perhaps 4,000 more vehicles will be pouring into the Kapolei interchange each day.

There is a desperate need for a second outlet for our (too rapidly) growing community. That outlet, the Makakilo Drive extension to the new north-south interchange, already exists as Project No. E-14 in the Transportation for O'ahu Plan (TOP) 2025 and is budgeted at $8.5 million.

While ignoring this much-needed project during this decade, state and city officials have prioritized spending over $70 million on Kapolei (i.e., "down the hill") transportation improvements. An extension of Makakilo Drive to a full "clover leaf" north-south interchange will not only cut about five miles off the commute for upper Makakilo residents but will also ease the pressure for those using the Kapolei interchange.

Need funding? Transfer the $8 million budgeted by the Legislature for UH-West O'ahu planning, since the UH Board of Regents currently opposes the new school.

Rather than continuing their practice of unfulfilled promises that characterized the past decade, the state and city ought to do something positive now for the long-neglected residents of Makakilo.

Financing is valid bar to a new UH campus

Your Oct. 22 editorial "Short-term problems no bar to West O'ahu" is a reasoned approach to the long-term benefits of a new campus for UH-West O'ahu — had it been written 15 years ago. The financing of higher education has changed radically in the last 20 years or so.

Today, we cannot expect that new campuses will in the longer term be affordable to the state. The annual costs will no longer decline after initial investment, primarily because of the new maintenance costs of new technology (including support personnel) in education.

California, for example, has grown cautious about new campuses despite demand to accommodate more students. State monies are over-committed, while endowments have declined in yield.

Nationwide, the major new source of revenue has been the students themselves: Tuition has leaped to unprecedented levels — which your paper reports also in "College tuition up as states cut money" (Oct. 22). Huge increases in tuition make college less accessible to those who can benefit the most.

Thus, the new "common sense" tells us that if a new West O'ahu is built now, tuition for all students in the UH system spikes, and President Dobelle must raise, in rapid quantum leaps, more private contributions.

Police need to enforce city's parking laws

I would like to know why cars are allowed to park on Fort Weaver Road along the fence just past Kilaha Street.

Cars are double-parked, and people often dump cars there. One abandoned car was set on fire several months ago. Drug deals are conducted at all hours of the day.

Please help us make our community a safer place by having the police enforce the no-parking laws.

What about the other Leeward homeless?

Regarding the proposed tent city for the homeless in Wai'anae: Your article states that of the approximately 6,500 homeless on O'ahu, 1,300 live on the Leeward Coast, and the Community Area Responsibility organization wants to help 100 of them. CAR is going to screen out all the hopeless cases and pick only the high-potential ones.

What happens to the other 1,200 homeless? How is this going to help the Leeward community solve the homeless problem?

This sounds like a good deal for these 100 folks, and I'm sure the CAR people have some federal money lined up, but the problem, which is with the other 1,200, will remain, and the politicians, bureaucrats and police will ignore it until someone thinks up the next high-profile idea to get his name in the paper.