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Of interest, this bill will be heard next Tuesday. It proposes the royalties paid to be raised from 10% to 12%, but DLNR is requesting 5% be taken from the County portion and given to DHHL. Any thoughts on this?
Be sure to read the testimony already submitted by DHHL/DLNR/OHA/Hawaii County Planner Director:
http://capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv....illtype=SB&billnumber=2792
(*Click on the "Testimony" thingy on the right hand side)
Wonder how many of our Puna citizens are aware of this, and how it affects us directly. Not sure what to think of this...
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Thanks for the heads up.
What one may think if this might depend on what opinion one might have of DHHL. Having dealt with DHHL on Maui and Oahu and watching them locally my opinion of DHHL is pretty low.
The State of Hawaii has made it's intention pretty clear on wanting to expand development geothermal electric resources on the Big Island. This bill is right up front in wanting to reduce our county's share of the royalties..... and for some unexplained reason our Planning Director - Bobby Leithead Todd seems rather willing to go along with this.
Leithead-Todd makes some complaint about reducing the flow of money to the Puna Relocation and Community Benefit Fund. I may be wrong but as I understand it the $50k annual payment to that fund is separate from the county's share of the royalties.
Either way Puna and/or our county get screwed.
This screwing seems to be under the auspices of benefiting our Hawaiian population by increasing funding to DHHL. Attractive on the surface but DHHL has performed so miserably in meeting the needs of our local Hawaiian families I don't think shoveling more money at them will help anyone on the local level - and I mean on all the islands.
A lot is going on here that doesn't meet the eye or pass the smell test in my opinion.
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
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Thank you, Mr. Tucker, for your response. This bill gives me grave concerns. Need to digest it and see what amendments might be forthcoming,if any.
Besides the County giving up 5% (not acceptable in my opinion) to DHHL (not convinced that's the best decision either); adding 2% off the gross (added cost to developers) may leave only the "big player(s)" in the bidding process when HELCO issues the RFP.
Need to read again, and digest this. In my opinion, this may need alot of serious thought, discussion, and testimony submitted. Unfortunately, the deadline is Monday to submit testimony, which doesn't leave much time for researching this further.
Thank you again for the response. Hope others read up on this one. It seems to be moving quickly.
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This is all about future royalties !!
Some brave company has to run the minefield of building a new geothermal plant.
People on the Big Island will fight new development in geothermal and we may all have to rely on candles before anyone collects a percentage of these new royalties !!
