• Bumpy ride ahead for Hawai‘i • Repeal cigarette tax hikes • Hooser cut ties to H&S awhile ago • Youth inspiration Bumpy ride ahead for Hawai‘i “Fasten your seatbelts! It’s going to be a bumpy ride.” Take heed of
• Bumpy ride ahead for Hawai‘i
• Repeal cigarette tax hikes
• Hooser cut ties to H&S awhile ago
• Youth inspiration
Bumpy ride ahead for Hawai‘i
“Fasten your seatbelts! It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
Take heed of that line in anticipation of where we’re headed and how we are going to get there.
In the case of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to overturn the decision reached indicating the State of Hawaii NOT having the right to sell “ceded” lands that was previously rendered unanimously by the Hawai‘i Supreme Court. Was that reversal based on a narrow premise that a presidential apology is insufficient as a legal claim of who really “owns” those lands?
Will the kanaka maoli unite their efforts in determining a sovereignty status being sought after by various claimants to the keys of the (Hawaiian) kingdom?
And, is the latest action of the Hawaii State Legislature seeking clarification of the Superferry issue an indication that perhaps some of our laws and/or procedural requirements are antiquated and in urgent need of being updated? Bureaucratic systems sure have a way of slowing down the process, don’t they?
In the mean time, there might be more than thumbs twiddling much less more time and money spent to figure these things out. Auwe!
Jose Bulatao Jr., Kekaha
Repeal cigarette tax hikes
It was a cheap-shot mentality of Obama to penalize smokers.
He could have just demanded the freeloading bankers, Bush and Cheney pony up all the billions of tax dollars they stole. Which would have raised 100 times the $33 billion (for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program that will take two to four years to raise) and would provide those funds in days, not years. Instead he chose to inflict more misery, anxiety and financial strain on smokers.
It is going to cause people to smoke more and encourage theft. What a great black market for a legal product. Even the American Cancer Society doesn’t know that it will deter smoking. They “hope it works out that way.” But then, why should they even be asked — what have they done after years of collecting money?
The federal excise tax on tobacco went from 39 cents per pack to $1.01, a 200 percent increase. So far, every few weeks there’s a hike in this tax. It seems very illegal, unfair taxation. It hits lower-income people the hardest.
It is discriminating and punitive against a class of people and Obama should repeal it.
Why didn’t he impose a higher tax on liquor which causes more damage in more ways? Why didn’t he impose a higher tax on strip joints which fall into the sin tax category? Probably because most male legislators wouldn’t want their “offices” infringed on.
This pettiness proved it to me that Obama is a little thinker and won’t make it on the long haul. He’s scraping from the defenseless because he’s afraid to go after the criminals he sits with every day.
Elaine Dunbar, Lihu‘e
Hooser cut ties to H&S awhile ago
We have recently received a number of inquiries regarding Gary Hooser’s status with H&S Publishing, as a result of Mr. Hooser’s political positions and activities.
Since 2003, Gary Hooser has not been an owner of H&S Publishing. To pursue a full-time political career, Mr. Hooser resigned from H&S Publishing, legally transferring all his interest in H&S Publishing to the remaining two partners (Bob Self and Rob Sanford) in 2003. Since 1998, his first election to the Kaua‘i County Council, Mr. Hooser had become progressively less active in H&S Publishing before he legally separated from the company in 2003.
I hope the above information clarifies that Gary Hooser is no longer an owner or involved in H&S Publishing in any way. I am happy to provide interested parties further clarification, if needed.
Rob Sanford, Publisher, H&S Publishing, LLC
Youth inspiration
Many thanks for printing the letters from Phillip Steinbacher’s eighth grade class. Thank you too, Mr. Steinbacher, thank you kids, and thanks also to other students who responded with equally thoughtful pieces to those sent in by Island School pupils.
Such well-reasoned and well-written missives belie the notion that today’s youth are incapable of composing anything more profound than text messages.
May these fine young people continue to send their thoughts to the Forum. Perhaps their tempered and jargon-free prose will inspire some of the adult letter writers to create more coherent and less vitriolic pieces.
H.M. Wyeth, Anahola
