SPACE, Bellyacres problems

[rainyjim]

what a great way to kick off a campaign. you must be getting TONS of supporters

[lo-ka-hi]

I applaud RJ for having the courage to bring to light the wrongdoing of a tax-exempt non-profit organization that is out of line.
Where would we be if everybody clears State Land and moves there? Why should anybody then have to buy their land and pay property tax and GE tax for rental income?
Surely even a Hawaiian Kingdom would enforce taxes and conservation of forests and the Aina.
We need politicians like her who have the guts to be unpopular with some when saying what needs to be said.

[kalakoa]

Would you, Sean, cut down protected trees on State land to build rental units?

Would you, any of you, wait several years before taking action?

No matter how "wrong" VGS may be, the glacial pace of enforcement only exacerbates these sorts of problems.

[fishenjim]

R.J, I am a little confused (nothing new). On the Graham Ellis issue. Is he in fact the on site manager,renting peoples houses while they are away? OR some one who does not exist? As you have refered to him as both in the same post. I have seen people on puna web defending him, I assumed he was a real person. So which is it? I will now refer to him as Graham Ellis the man, the myth, the legend.

[RJHampton]

fishenjim,
I apologize if you are a little confused about what I am saying. Let me clarify. Graham Ellis boasts of having no bank account, no property, no assets. Everything Graham Ellis has done and is doing is in the name of nonprofits not himself. The special use permit 1122 is in the name of the Hawai'i Volcano Circus,a 501©3 nonprofit. The encroachment on State land is the responsibility of Belly Acres and in turn the Village Green Society a 501 ©2 tax exempt nonprofit land holding company consisting mostly of foreigners and some Americans. So who will pay the fines that will be likely be imposed? Probably not Graham Ellis. The nonprofits will most likely suffer the penalties and may even lose their tax exempt status. What is Graham Ellis without his 501©3?

[Rob Tucker]

R.J.,

What is your point? 501c3 is a legitimate IRS vehicle. Not unusual. Are you disappointed that you can't personally crucify Graham? Most any large real estate asset is often held held by a trust or other title vehicle.

[kalakoa]

Laundering liabilities through a shell company is how everything is done these days.

I'm still wondering why it took so long to do anything, seems slow even by local standards.

[kalakoa]

as we begin to perhaps look at SB 2274 carefully you may see why this bill was killed

Creator forbid we would seek to require County to create a process.

Unfortunate, because others might also have used that process.

Far better to have "everything illegal at all times". Keeps the lawyers employed.

[Pilgrim]

Well wait a minute...
According to the Herald Tribune,

quote:

---

a Thursday phone interview, Ellis said he had not seen the report and could not address it. He did say, however, that he was unaware of any encroachment on state land, and any structures located there had been built without his knowledge or approval.

---

Apparently, Mr. Ellis was unaware of this activity on the land right next door. Perhaps the culprit is some other mysterious entity who must have cut down a bunch of trees and built the structures veeery quietly.

Smell something?

[rainyjim]

Smells like a whole bunch of tax dollars burning. As RJ already pointed out there is no culprit. Just another waste of funds that could have been used for hospitals, parks, roads, library, etc. kind of like the million dollar EIS for pahoa-keaau conversion project or the "study" for the public park in HPP.