Posted on: Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Letters to the Editor

Internet purchases subject to state tax

I'd like to thank Ms. Donna Kaneshiro (Letters, March 10) for providing an opportunity for me to correct a commonly held misunderstanding about Hawai'i tax laws.

While many Hawai'i residents believe that the goods they purchase on the Internet and through mail-order catalogs are tax-free, those purchases are in fact subject to Hawai'i's 4 percent use tax.

The use tax is aimed at leveling the playing field between local businesses that must pay Hawai'i's general excise tax (4 percent at the retail level) and out-of-state businesses that cannot be taxed by Hawai'i (and that can therefore undercut the price charged by local businesses).

Not only are goods purchased untaxed from out-of-state sellers subject to the use tax, but since the year 2000, services and contracting are also subject to this tax.

Information about the use tax is readily available. Inside the back cover of any Hawai'i individual income tax return instruction booklet is a reprint of a 1995 Tax Facts publication on the use tax, which has been reprinted in the instruction booklets every year since then.

Additional information is available on the department's Web site at www.state.hi.us/tax, or by calling us at 587-4242 (toll-free from the Neighbor Islands and Mainland United States at (800)222-3229).

State Senate rejected a man with integrity

I am disappointed in the Senate's rejection of Ted Hong. Citing "judicial temperament" as the reason is absurd. It's his forthrightness that people don't like. So, he may be the most outspoken interim UH regent. Good. It's obvious UH needs reform.

Regarding Sen. Lorraine Inouye's comments on seeking the "best and brightest that our state has": I'm sorry, Lorraine, but Hong is top picks. Look at his credentials: He has experience with employment/labor, administration and civil rights law, private injury defense, and state and federal litigation. He has served as assistant corporation counsel for the County of Hawai'i, deputy corporation counsel and prosecuting attorney for the City and County of Honolulu, and as the state's chief negotiator under Gov. Lingle.

Before making statements on Hong's ability, Inouye should take a look at herself. I won't accept criticism from a woman who took four days off during a 2001 special session to go golfing in Reno.

In today's world, why do we raise our children with the morals we fail to embrace? The Senate did not reject an unqualified candidate; it rejected a man with integrity.

More HPD officers would curb speeding

City Councilman Nester Garcia's rationale to bring back the traffic van cams to help cut down on the racing-related fatalities on our highways is a bad idea. The program will get shut down, just as state Sen. Cal Kawamoto's fiasco did a couple of years ago. Problems such as invasion of one's privacy, making positive identifica-tion of the alleged driver, and other judicial and technical challenges have not been answered.

The Honolulu Police Department, if given the resources, can do the job of bringing this situation under control. SHOPO President Tenari Maafala relates that HPD needs approximately 200 more officers to fill all vacancies, thus having more manpower to do more patrols. HPD is making do with what it has now.

Assistant Police Chief Boisse Correa states that the department has taken an aggressive stance and is arresting drivers for reckless driving in high-speed and racing situations. This program is very good and it is a big deterrent; no one likes to be arrested, handcuffed, taken to the station and processed like a common criminal. Then the racer would have to take time off from work to go to court; this could be costly.

For some of these drivers who speed and race, traffic citations are a joke; they just pay the fine and go back to what they were doing. Getting arrested is a very positive deterrent, especially when the word gets out that you will be busted.

The prosector's office says that it is hard to get a conviction on reckless-driving arrests. If that is the case, get the law changed and give our police officers the tools to do their job effectively.

Van cams don't catch the maniacs out there

We haven't learned our lesson about camera vans?

One more time: The cameras do not smell alcohol on a driver's breath; they do not even stop a speeding or erratic driver; they only penalize the average driver for going with the flow of traffic, while the true maniacs are free to crash anywhere.

The van cams are designed for revenue collection only and have nothing to do with public safety. Let's not go through this misery again, please.

The Bible doesn't determine our laws

In defense of her demand that she and other "Christian landlords" be legally free to discriminate against potential renters, Evelyn Cook proclaims: "The Bible condemns homosexuality in clear, unequivocal language." It's about time somebody asked in response: So what?

So these words demonstrate that the hatred of homosexuals goes back thousands of years. Again, so what? Why should this long-standing bias receive any more credence in the 21st century than, for example, similar biblical statements about the inferiority of women or the acceptance of slavery? The answer is that it has no credence, any more than the other concepts ever did.

Cook and all the others of her sort need to be reminded that the United States is governed by civil laws, not by someone's interpretation of the Bible — or any other religious text, for that matter. If it's just plain old prejudice (and this is), then it deserves to be outlawed, regardless of what the Bible says.

School board proposal would address problem

I have been a teacher for nine years and am for Gov. Lingle's proposal for seven school boards. I have taught in Wai'anae and Mililani, and the allocation of resources varied tremendously.

In Mililani I have everything I need to help my students succeed. I have a "store" available to me daily. I can walk into this "store" and get supplies such as binders, pencils, pens and markers. Copies on the copy machine are unlimited, and I have color and white paper at my disposal. I am never in need of books for my students or for myself. This year I was allocated more money than I could spend.

In Wai'anae, I spent $2,000 of my own money each year buying supplies to help my students succeed. Copies were limited on the copy machine, color paper was not available, and I used to pick up paper clips off the ground. Funds were distributed haphazardly. I would be given $1,000 on Thursday and told to spend it by Monday. Responsible purchases were impossible to make.

The seven local school boards would begin to address problems such as this that exist in Hawai'i's educational system.

New NCAA proposal doesn't make sense

Once again, the NCAA exemplifies why its acronym stands for No Common sense At All.

In its latest proposal to address alleged recruiting misconduct by a few schools, it is considering prohibiting paid recruiting trips. This proposal hurts all the other schools that did not commit such vulgar tactics while it does not stop any recruit who can afford to visit schools from partying.

Why should schools like the University of Hawai'i be severely punished for a recruit drinking and having sex in Colorado? All the NCAA would have to do is punish those schools that engage in the misconduct by not allowing post-season games or reduce the amount of scholarships or some other reasonable sanction.

Or is that expecting too much common sense from the NCAA?

Changing the booster club name a bad idea

Here we go again!

For some unknown reason, UH has proposed to change the booster club name from Ahahui Koa Anuenue to "H" club.

Initially, it changed colors to black, changed the logo to an insipid "H," and hired an overly aggressive, intimidating mascot. Now this. Enough already!

Hey guys, if it's not broke, no fix um.

GO 'BOWS!

Judge Choy also had an interest in sculling

In your appropriately laudatory and otherwise comprehensive obituary on Judge Herbert Choy, you did not mention his favorite avocation as a sculler (i.e., rowing a one-man racing boat).

Having acquired the skill when a law student at Harvard, he took it up again here on the Ala Wai, as a member of the Ala Wai Boat Club. As such, he rowed regularly, and competently, into his 80s. And as one of the club's directors, he was active and influential in promoting the club's interests. He will be greatly missed.

Wilson Tunnel work should be in summer

Have the bureaucrats at the state Transportation Department taken leave of their senses? They plan to shut down each of the Wilson Tunnels for 30 days at a time during the fall. All work like this should be performed during the summer months when the traffic is vastly lighter than it is during the rest of the year.

To contemplate shutting down a major arterial route when schools and UH are in session is simply deranged. Every Windward commuter knows how nightmarish traffic is on those days when either the Likelike or Pali is out of commission due to an accident. Are we to have 60 days of this nightmare deliberately inflicted on us?

Please, Department of Transportation, be sensible — repaving the tunnels can wait until the summer of 2005 if need be, but it should not be done while schools are in session. To continue with this deeply flawed plan would reveal bureaucratic contempt for the people of the Windward side.

Improve education first before increasing salaries

The time has come for us, the UH students who pay thousands of dollars each year for a less-than-mediocre education, to stand up for ourselves.

With another impending strike, I did my homework to find out if the idea of a strike was well-deserved. The University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly Web site notes the average salaries of UH professors as $77,648, associate professors as $59,941 and assistant professors as $52,336. The national average of colleges is $65,000, $52,000 and $46,350, respectively, according to PayScale Incorporated (2004).

UH faculty salaries rank well above the national average, yet the level of education provided is well below average. I do not contest the fact that there is a much higher cost of living in Hawai'i than in other college-bearing locations; however, shouldn't we, as students, demand the education we're paying for and that we deserve?

U.S. News ranks the University of Hawai'i-Manoa in the lowest 25 percent of colleges (based on factors such as academic performance, alumni donations, peer review, student review, graduation rate). It also shows only 11 percent of enrolled students graduating in four years, and only 53 percent of students ever graduating. Most colleges have an average graduation rate of 60 to 70 percent, with some schools near 98 percent.

Shouldn't we spend more time factoring the level of education into the pay rates instead of income brought into the system by professors, as the UHPA claimed as a basis for its salary increase? I'm not saying the professors do not deserve a salary increase. What I am saying is that the entire level of education provided by the University of Hawai'i needs to be reviewed before I'm willing to lose a semester to a strike.

Until the students step up and demand the quality provided for the money we're paying, we cannot expect anything to be done regarding our below-average education. I figure by the time I have my bachelor of science in computer science and a minor in business, I will have paid nearly $50,000 (and that's low compared to other full-time students). I'm not so sure I'm getting what I'm paying for.