BUSINESS BRIEFS
Ag board OKs milk price hike
Advertiser Staff
The Board of Agriculture yesterday gave preliminary approval to increase the wholesale price of Big Island milk by about 26 cents a gallon. Big Island dairies are seeking an increase in the wholesale price to $2.54 a gallon to account for rising labor, feed and insurance costs.
The proposed hike now goes up for a public hearing on the Big Island, then must be cleared by the attorney general, the Small Business Regulatory Review Board and the governor.
STATE WINS BANK TAXES DISPUTE
The state Tax Appeals Court ruled in favor of the state in its tax dispute with Central Pacific Bank.
Tax Appeals Judge Gary Chang ruled on Monday that Central Pacific owes the state $8.1 million in back taxes and interest for dividend income the bank received from its real estate investment trust from 1999 to 2004.
Central Pacific paid the taxes to the state under protest several years ago, according to Deputy Attorney General Hugh Jones. But the money in question has been set aside into a special litigated fund and not the state's general fund, Jones said. Chang's ruling means that the state can now transfer the money to its general fund to pay for state programs.
SELF-STORAGE UNIT ON DILLINGHAM
York & Co Inc. is leading a partnership that plans to build a self-storage facility on Dillingham Boulevard across from Honolulu Community College.
The 120,000-square-foot project will include more than 1,100 storage units.
HAWTEL TO BUY SUPPORT SOFTWARE
Hawaiian Telcom has committed to purchase more than $1 million worth of software from Fine Point Technologies to improve customer support and smooth the transition of users to new network services.
Fine Point's software will "allow Hawaiian Telcom to reduce customer support costs while enhancing the quality of experience realized by broadband and dialup customers," Fine Point said.
