• Housing shortage • Electric rates Housing shortage I believed that the phrase “too little too late” was coined just for you! You have been operating with blinders in place. Suddenly, behold, Mayor Baptiste and our current County Council have
• Housing shortage
• Electric rates
Housing shortage
I believed that the phrase “too little too late” was coined just for you! You have been operating with blinders in place. Suddenly, behold, Mayor Baptiste and our current County Council have discover (gasp) that Kaua‘i residents are in a severe emergency housing crisis.
It has only taken 10 years for our county officials to discover this emergency.
Where have they been?
The availability of affordable rents on Kaua‘i reads: Kaua‘i Residents 0 (zero); Visitors 100%.
The mayor and County Council have been operating with blinders and ears stuffed. I accuse you on non-performance — of turning blind eyes and stuffed ears to Kaua‘i’s severe housing crisis.
Have you ever thought of organizing an emergency meeting with Kaua‘i Realtors to research this emergency? Kaua‘i residents are one of the major reasons for visitors repeat return to Kaua‘i. So Kaua‘i Realtors — how about helping turning this housing crisis for Kaua‘i around for residents — your source of megabucks. Kaua‘i residents, you can get fighting mad and vote these “do nothing” for Kauaian politicians out.
When JoAnn Yukimura joined the Kaua‘i Council my hopes for housing relief reached a happy expectation. So what happened? Zero, nada, nothing. What did my hope-of-change person do??! She’s building a million-dollar-plus bike walk-run path for a minimum number of Kaua‘i residents. The same score is applicable to our current Councilmembers and mayor — shame on you!
Peggy Field
Kapa‘a
Electric rates
One would expect that as a supposedly rate-payer-owned utility, operating as a “cooperative,” KIUC would deal with its members straight when it comes to escalating electricity cost. But, no, we are getting the same kind of spin that we would expect Kauai Electric to put out — namely, blame the users for the higher bill month after month. KIUC is using a substantially higher “Energy Adjustment” than can be justified by the price of fuel. In my bills for the last two months my daily usage this past month was 17 KWH (kilowatthour) per day, compared to 17.83 the month before, and 20.26 for the same period last year. My bill for August, 2003 was $121.51 for a daily usage of 17.4 KWH per day. My latest bill? $163.76! That’s an increase of 34.8%!! The difference is the so-called Energy Adjustment: August 2003 Energy Adjustment was $0.0339 per KWH; December, 2003, $0.0461, an increase of 37 percent; April, 2004, $0.0546 (up 18 percent); June, 2004, $0.0852 (up 56 percent). From August, 2003 to June, 2004 the Energy Adjustment went up 151 percent! According to the July 12, 2004 issue of The Garden Island: “Although the rising cost of oil is partly to blame — electric companies are able to pass on those added costs to consumers under the state Pubic Utilities Commission rules — one primary reason for the spike in prices is the increase in usage.” Wrong! All the “experts”, including KIUC’s own energy expert Ray Mierta, use the same spin: “Blame the victims!” Would Mr. Mierta explain the 151 percent increase in his Energy Adjustment from August, 2003 to June, 2004? It’s a good thing the gasoline we use is not sold by a cooperative, or we’d be paying $3.75 a gallon today, instead of $2.60!
Raymond L. Chuan
Hanalei
