by Simon Russell
Legislators May Be Listening to the Voters Window of Opportunity to Abolish the PLDC
Hawaii’ s citizens understand there are serious budget shortfalls facing our state and we have empowered our elected representatives to solve this problem. Many of us, however, firmly disagree that private development of Hawaii’ s public lands should be a way to address our debt problem. Rather, instead of becoming it’ s own realtor, the government should live within its means. Act 55, codified into State law as HRS 171C, created the Public Land Development Corporation( PLDC) to enter into public-private agreements to develop public lands. The law and the application of it thus far is problematic for a variety of reasons and must be repealed. Specifically, the broad powers that the PLDC has granted to itself are as follows:
1. PLDC has removed itself from the otherwise lawful need to provide appropriate transparency to the public for planned changes in the land use.
2. PLDC has cast aside the judicious use of the environmental and planning codes.
3. PLDC has provided no assurances that the Corporation will produce the results supporting the welfare of Hawaii’ s people in terms of social, environmental or economic benefit, or obey county zoning rules and regulations.
As of January 25th, twenty three bills have been introduced calling for repeal of all or parts of HRS 171C( 15 from the Senate and 8 from the House). The big question is which repeal version will pass, and what will the actual result be?
Feeding the Pig by Valerie Sisneros
Recently I received my renewal in the mail for the license tags for my ' 01 Toyota 4Runner. When I purchased the vehicle I paid $ 150 for my license plates. The renewal price is $ 395!! I thought there must be some mistake. I went to the Upcountry DMV to see why the drastic increase. They pretty much just said; " it went up, just pay it!". I asked for a breakdown of the fees. Big surprise, it ' s all TAXES!! The Weight Tax was $. 75 / lb., but has now been raised to $ 2.75 / lb.!! The breakdown is as follows: County Weight Tax $ 189.48 State Weight Tax 137.80 State Registration Fee 45.00 County Registration Fee 17.50 Beautification Fee 5.00 Validation Decal. 50
TOTAL $ 395.28 Ironically while waiting for my number to be called at the DMV, I was reading a full page ad in my NRA magazine with the heading; " Are you over 55? It ' s All Free for Seniors " It went on to read; " Every year Uncle Sam gives away hundreds of millions of dollars in cash, goods and services to people just like you ". The article stated that these " freebies " are available to you regardless of your income or assets. A few examples of the " goodies ": Free Prescription Drugs Free Dental Care Up to $ 800 for Food Free Legal Help Help to Pay your Rent, wherever you live Up to $ 15,000 free money to spruce up your home $ 1800 to pay your Heating Bill this winter Get paid $ 100 a day to travel overseas Get your own VIP tour of the Whitehouse without waiting in line with everyone else( my favorite!) Up to $ 5000 free to help you pay your bills How you can Travel the World.... all at government expense And then it says " There ' s MORE, MUCH, MUCH MORE!!! All this while we just keep writing those tax checks to Fund this Madness. I can ' t take it. Where exactly IS the Talahatchee Bridge??
Pono Press, March 2013, Page 4