Population control must be considered

Thanks to Pat Kelly ("Limiting population will help solve traffic problems," April 26) for shifting the focus of attention from the symptoms (excess traffic, parking shortages, sewer overload, housing and education needs) to the basic problem: rapid population growth.

While birth rates have been reduced in recent years, in-migration continues uncontrolled. Kelly suggests: "We must look at the bigger picture and decrease the amount of people coming to Hawai'i."

During the 1960s to 1980s, groups like Zero Population Growth, the Sierra Club, Hawai'i Planned Parenthood, "Maximillion" and many other religious and environmentally concerned groups and people sought ways to curtail in-migration. Mayor Eileen Anderson went to Washington, D.C., and learned that in-migration could only be limited by declaring Hawai'i as a national park! Their efforts and state strategies for a "preferred future" have been ineffective. Hawai'i's population has increased from 499,974 people in 1950 to 964,691 in 1980 and 1,211,537 residents in 2000. U.S. Census projections indicate that another quarter million people will live in Hawai'i by 2030.

As Pat Kelly indicated, the time is now for a new generation to tackle the problems of population control in order to decrease the rate and number of people coming to O'ahu and to try to preserve Hawai'i's unique quality of life.

Road to dump is a heavenly drive

I find it interesting that Kapa'a Quarry Road, which passes though Kawainui Marsh and is directly past the Kailua dump transfer station, is heavily traveled by full dump transfer trucks, full aggregate dump trucks, loaded concrete trucks, trucks loaded going to the dump and many civilian vehicles, yet even being built on a swamp, this road is relatively smooth with no potholes to repair.

I recommend we hire the person who built this road as the chief highway engineer.

Improvements at OHA are worthy of praise

Regarding the April 28 article citing OHA as falling short on its obligations as per state Auditor Marian Higa: It is apparent that lots of improvements have also been made by OHA in the last few years. And that is certainly worthy of admiration and kudos.

What I really want to hear from Clyde Namu'o and the OHA board is their plan to bring OHA up to par as a secondary goal and a similar and primary plan to make OHA a first-class agency that we Hawaiians can be proud of and can point to as an example of the best that can be done. We deserve that, and should expect and demand it. I mua OHA!

We need bill first so we can actually pay

Please let me express my frustration with the real property tax of the City & County of Honolulu. We have always paid our tax semi-annually. We got our second installment recently. To our surprise, there was a penalty and interest to the bill.

Now, we would have paid it right away if the city had mailed the bill. When I called, the response was that we should have kept track of when to pay our second installment even if it didn't send the tax bill.

I think that is obscene. I guess there are others in a similar situation.

Other lifeguard heroes

Regarding Laura Warren's April 28 letter: She is correct that Buddy Adolphson of the Honolulu Police Department preceded Eddie Aikau as a lifeguard on the North Shore. On a New Year's Eve in the early '60s, I was fortunate that Buddy Adolphson and fireman George Farr had their big boards at 'Ehukai and braved 20-foot close-out waves to rescue me and a friend. Adolphson, Farr and Aikau all earned the right to be called heroes.

Our teachers, children deserve the very best

Imagine that: Average teacher pay is almost equal to that of a starting bus driver. Does anyone besides me see the inequity in this? Which individual has the bigger impact on a person's life?

My niece goes to Lunalilo Elementary School, and the teachers there are wonderful and do a great job mentoring the students, especially when you consider the material condition of the school. My niece looks forward to going there every day.

They don't have air conditioning like our pampered legislators do. I say we should turn off the AC at the "square building on Beretania" until every school in Hawai'i is brought up to the standards that the Legislature demands for itself.

UH demonstrators need to face reality

The UH students currently demonstrating against the $50 million military research program should consider the consequences if this is turned down — the impact it would have on UH. Perhaps they can also suggest a cut of $50 million in expenses to balance it out.

Perhaps there could be cuts in programs like astronomy, teaching, Hawaiian, medical, sports and arts or a good stiff hike in tuition, since they seem to think money is no object.

Give me (the taxpayer) a break.

There's nothing in 'trust fund' but IOUs

Like many others, John Williamson, in his April 13 letter, expounds the virtues of the Social Security "trust fund" — how it won't run out of money for decades — without really looking at what the bonds held in there really mean.

What reform opponents like Mr. Williamson must realize is that there are no real assets in the "trust fund," since the government has spent any surplus it had on other programs. Thus, it issued bonds to itself to pay itself back. Or, to put it more bluntly, the government has forced the taxpayers to make loans to themselves.

Many people mistake the bonds as assets, but they do not question how the government plans to redeem those bonds. Or, the more fundamental question is, where does government get its funding from? Why, the taxpayers, of course! The "trust fund" holds bonds that are merely claims to future taxes collected. So, when Social Security starts going into a deficit in 12 years, pray tell how will the government cash in those bonds if it won't be collecting enough taxes to pay off beneficiaries in the first place? Magic?

If Social Security budgeting is independent from the rest of the government budget as some claim, then, to make up for the shortfall, the federal government needs to either increase its income (raise taxes), cut down on spending (cut benefit payments), or both. Just as Galen Fox and many others have stated.

Wahine softball should not be missed

It's great to see Wahine softball finally back on TV.

Just as Wahine volleyball is colorful and exciting, so is Wahine softball.

I may tend to get drowsy watching baseball, but never with girls' softball.

Too often people pass by TV softball thinking the girls' games might be monotonous. That is a mistake.

The next time Wahine softball is on TV, I suggest you watch. You will see the remarkable transformation of seemingly frail, fragile and lovely young women become fierce and intense competitors, bringing into play all the elements of good and exciting sports action.

Let's have more Wahine softball on either one of our two local sport stations.

Majority party brought failure

At the start of the 2005 legislative session, Republicans had high hopes of cutting taxes, solving traffic problems, improving education and making affordable housing a reality along with improving Hawai'i's economic environment. The Senate president put forward a list of similar ambitions.

Amazingly, though these issues have challenged us for all too many years, once again we closed another session without success.

At the start, I said any hopes for tax relief would be dashed as the surplus was already spent. Virtually every cent would be gobbled up by pay raises for public employees. So it was.

In spending all the money on pay raises, the majority party pre-empted the very issues it claims to care most about. Hawai'i is suffering with some of the highest housing prices in the nation, excessively high prices for food, high prices for medical care, and the list goes on. The best thing we could have done was to improve the economy for everybody, and not simply give a pay raise to one single, special-interest group.

Instead, the majority party increased taxes — hitting hardest those who could afford it the least. Just the pending excise tax increase of 12.5 percent could cost a typical family of four on O'ahu an additional $450 or more per year. This is an extremely regressive tax.

On a different front, we also started out this legislative session with high hopes of shoring up the credibility and honor of the Legislature. As we sat through ethics training, self-righteous majority party members stood up and said they were going to uphold ethics in government.

Amazingly, despite their promises, a number of majority party members signed and introduced a despicable resolution to extort a private company to do the bidding on behalf of a convicted sex offender. In another case, a committee chairman was faulted after one of his staffers sought campaign contributions from UH Board of Regents (members), including members appearing before his committee for advise and consent.

These events place a dark cloud over the Senate majority party and reflect poorly on the integrity of the legislative body.

On a positive note, the Legislature passed a number of measures that will make Hawai'i a better place.

Our Senate crime package, for example, fared rather well and produced a result of which we can be proud. Although the wiretap compliance bill fell by the wayside, two major initiatives — the sex offender registry and the DNA registry — were approved fairly intact and will become a reality.

And, after a difficult fight, the Superferry is finally on its way to becoming a reality, too.

The ultimate solution to Hawai'i's problems is to have balance through a bipartisan government where both Republicans and Democrats — despite their competing interests — can find common ground for the common good.

Despite the majority party's intransigence, Republicans will continue to fight for conserving Hawai'i's natural resources, ending public and private monopolies, supporting county home rule, exempting the sick and the poor from taxation, and cutting taxes for everyone.

(This letter is based on remarks written for the closing day of the 2005 session today.)