• Take chances, county • Imagine Republican legislators • More on dominion Take chances, county The county of Kaua‘i should show some backbone and stand up to the threat of a lawsuit from Koloa Creekside Estates. The Koloa Creekside attorney
• Take chances, county
• Imagine Republican legislators
• More on dominion
Take chances, county
The county of Kaua‘i should show some backbone and stand up to the threat of a lawsuit from Koloa Creekside Estates. The Koloa Creekside attorney paints a dire picture of what will happen if the county loses the lawsuit. However, the chances are just as good that the county will prevail. If the county is going to back down and fold its tent every time some disgruntled developer doesn’t get his way and threatens to sue, then we should just do away with the Office of the County Attorney and the Planning Department and let the developers do whatever they please.
Do not give in to threats from people who do not live here and whose interests are quite different from those of the people who live on this island.
Linda Estes
Koloa
Imagine Republican legislators
In the last election, the majority of Hawai‘i’s voters in all 51 House districts voted for a Republican governor and lieutenant governor. Gov. Linda Lingle and Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona were re-elected overwhelmingly because they have shown leadership and results. They have tackled key problems facing our state including education, tax relief, affordable housing and homelessness. They have shown vision and promoted programs for Hawai‘i to better compete in the new global economy. They have received little help from our Democratic Party — dominated state Legislature that has lost touch with the concerns of our community. If the same majority of voters who re-elected Lingle and Aiona had voted for Republicans in the state House and Senate races, Hawai‘i would be well on its way to solving its chronic problems.
Here are some of the tough problems that Hawai‘i has faced for decades:
• Education: Lingle and Aiona have worked to improve Hawai‘i’s public education system, ranked 48th in the nation. Hawai‘i’s operating budget is over $12,000 a year per pupil, yet only 64 of every 100 children entering the ninth grade graduate from high school. Hawai‘i’s private and charter schools, independent of the Department of Education, spent less on average and graduated almost every student. The Legislature stopped the governor’s effort to allow local control of schools on each island and underfunded the governor’s efforts to promote science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning in our schools.
• Tax Relief: Lingle and Aiona have worked to lower Hawai‘i’s regressive taxes. Hawai‘i’s state tax on a single mother with one child kicks in at wages of only $215 per week. Only one state taxes its poor at a higher rate. The Legislature blocked significant tax reform last year and passed only one-third of the tax relief proposed by Lingle. The governor’s proposal would have refunded $780 to a family of four with income of less than $50,000.
• The Homeless and Affordable Housing: The Governor increased the funds for emergency and transitional shelters from just $4 million to $40 million and for the first time ever provided state funds to repair public housing facilities. The Lingle-Aiona Administration’s Department of Hawaiian Homelands has accomplished more than in any time in our state’s history. In contrast, in the seven years before Lingle-Aiona, the Legislature raided $212 million from state housing funds and last year cut half of the administration’s proposed $148 million for affordable housing.
• A Vision for Hawai‘i’s Future:Lingle set forth a bold set of initiatives to transform Hawai‘i’s economy by developing our innovative capacity, rather than depending upon wealth created by land development. These initiatives in education, workforce development, and global links have been praised by the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation and the National Governor’s Association. The Democratic Legislature has shown little leadership in setting forth a vision for Hawai‘i’s future of more choices and of high-paying jobs for our youth. The Legislature talks of “sustainability” and “diversification” and spent $2 million on task forces but shortchanged funding for Lingle’s bold effort. Thanks to a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation and $500,000 from the William and Belinda Gates Foundation, the programs have moved forward.
Hawaii has the opportunity for success in the 2008 legislative session if the Democrats address these tough issues. Otherwise, in November Hawai‘i has the opportunity to make a change for the better when we elect state senators and representatives. We will not start to fix our problems until we elect more legislators who have a vision of Hawai‘i as a better place to live, not just the status quo. Hawai‘i needs more legislators who share the vision of our governor and lieutenant governor and a lot less Democrats who obstruct progress for purely political reasons.
Willes Lee
Chairman, Hawai‘i Republican Party
More on dominion
I would like to respond to Joseph Vraratic’s letter “Responds to ‘Trees have memory.’”
Vraratic talks about Genesis?
First of all, Vrarartic quotes Chapter 1 Verse 26 describing God’s creation of man in which He states, “And let him have dominion over the animals and over all of the earth.”
He would like to think that means that mankind is allowed, by God, to cut trees down, which of course would be to kill them. Any living thing by definition can be killed.
Dominion means control or authority.
President Bush has dominion over America.
What he does with it reflects his character and his free will and will some day determine his judgment by God.
Is it sacrilegious and is it taking God in vain to destroy that which God created?
Or does Vraratic think that God’s will was to create everything on Earth for us to kill and destroy?
About Genesis — God made grass first. Grass was the first living thing God made. We do not eat grass. We do not need grass to survive.
Then God made all plants, flowers and trees, many of which we do not eat or need to survive.
Why would people like Vraratic want to destroy that which God created?
Think about it. There are not too many answers to that question.
What entity would a person who supports death and destruction really be controlled by (or praying to)?
Think about it.
Dennis Chaquette
Kapa‘a