Finance Committee "reluctantly" approves GET hike

[kalakoa]

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2018...rease-get/

Highlights:

- Kanuha: concern about a "blank check" because there is no list of projects
- Poindexter: constituents upset, how do we "live within our means"
- Kim: favorable outlook because State says "tourists pay 30-40% of this tax"
- Richards: proposed amendment to lower fuel/property taxes (failed)
- O'Hara: any surplus should be spent on more police protection (approved)
- Ruggles: increase property tax instead, the wealthy can better afford it
- Weatherford: new money should require "extraordinary oversight"

Many letters received supporting "Complete Streets, Safe Routes To School".

Mary Begier (realtor) had many questions, specifically "will the tax actually expire in 2030? is there even such a thing as a 'temporary' tax?"

County is apparently "about $8M short", depending on "final property valuations", which really makes it sound like property taxes are a fabrication.

Time will tell ... I predict another tax increase before the end of the year, and nothing to show for it after raises and overhead consume all the new revenue.

[Chunkster]

From the article: “We have cut our costs, we have trimmed our budgets, we have asked our departments to make do with less,” Sako said.

Where? How much? All we have heard about are across-the-board pay raises and Harry Kim wringing his hands while handing out our money to ineffective county agencies. Is simply throwing more money at the transit system a good idea? Yes, there is an expensive transit "study" under way, but does anyone really think that it will suggest getting rid of all the useless employees who let things go to hell? They will retire the head of the department with a cushy pension (if they haven't already) and go on their merry way. And finally, Weatherford remains a joke if he thinks there will be any real "oversight" from the council or mayor once the money goes into the abyss.

[kalakoa]

Is simply throwing more money at the transit system a good idea?

People will still have to walk 1-3 miles to the highway to catch the bus.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Finance Committee "reluctantly" approves GET hike

Nowhere near as reluctantly as I pay it.

Recycle Puna. Humans, although probably not you personally, have already left 400,000 pounds of trash on the moon. - YouTube's Half As Interesting

[leilanidude]

Don't forget that Josh Green has proposed ANOTHER half percent be added...

[kalakoa]

I offer the following benchmark:

Report of the Ad Hoc Committtee on Puna Connectivity, 2016

http://records.co.hawaii.hi.us/weblink/1...Page1.aspx

This document cites the well-known lack of alternative routes which became a highly visible problem during Tropical Storm Iselle and the 2014 lava emergency.

Some of the suggested routes follow existing County right-of-way.

In 2016, County Council approved $11M capital improvement budget, but did not actually allocate any funding. Authorization expires June 30, 2018.

With the recent Fuel Tax increase ("for roads") and the new GET increase ("for transportation"), County should have adequate funds to actually create some of these alternative routes.

Note also the map on page 37: opening S Lauko Road is opposed by landowners whose name ends in a vowel, but supported by adjacent landowers whose names do not end in a vowel. This anecdotal evidence is consistent with the overall "progress not allowed here".

[kalakoa]

Communication 722, page 19:

What does the surcharge mean to me:

If you typically spend $100 on groceries at the store, your bill will increase by approximately 54 cents -- instead of $104.16, you will pay $104.70.

This math erroneously treats the GET as a "sales tax", conveniently neglecting to include the impact of higher collection at the multiple transactions that happen before retail point-of-sale -- a "typical" $100 worth of groceries will already cost more before the higher GET is collected at the register.

The larger economic reality is that costs are also going up for other reasons (higher FTR, increased property taxes, new minimum wage) -- every one of which is separately described as "only a few pennies/dollars more".

[Chunkster]

There was supposed to be another vote on this atrocity today. Does anybody know how it went?

[Mac2017]

Blah blah blah politicians. Yeah crying broke as usual.

Maybe they should not pay for dodge hellcats (yeah I saw one of those crooked cops driving one last week). Made me think the dude with the srt8 challenger got a promotion.

How about actually convicting a felon who buys whores with the p card.

How about holding the criminals in charge of the water in Kona accountable.

I guess I'm asking too much.

[randomq]

Get rid of Hele-On and let private business pick up the slack. You want a ride, you pay for it yourself, carpool, etc.

Probably could say the same for many departments they contact out for studies and labor anyway...

Keep giving raises, but eliminate the lowest performing 10% of the workforce every 6 months.