• It’s our money • We want to know • Live aloha • Daylight robbery It’s our money In response to “Two steps backward, one step forward.” With the ongoing recession and the past financial actions set forth by our
• It’s our money • We want to know • Live aloha • Daylight
robbery
It’s our money
In response to “Two steps backward, one step forward.” With the ongoing recession and the past financial actions set forth by our local government, we were all being forced to tighten our budgets and work forward through some difficult times.
Now our mayor and council are the big heroes. No more furloughs for public workers. They now hold the taxpayers’ money in excess of $40 million, to which they think is at their disposal to spend in any way they please.
What about the taxpayers and the families who are not being bailed out of short pay periods? What about the families who have no income due to their jobs being eliminated, still laid off, or for those whose benefits have come to an end?
The only hope for these people is that Mr. Obummer prints more money and then leaves the cost of it all to their children or grand children to pay it back sometime down the road.
I’m totally shocked that we have allowed our government to take our hard-earned money and spend it with no regard of where it came from in the first place. They obviously care less about the families who are hurting with no income. They have actually over-charged the taxpayers.
Where is our refunds? A criminal offense is justified. A total misappropriation of taxpayer funds. I hope now you will take these actions into consideration when entering the voting booth next time around.
Steve Martin, Kapa‘a
We want to know
First, we eliminate paper bags, so we can save the trees which placated the tree huggers but plastic bags were the replacements.
Now, we go back to the paper, all in the name of conservation (oil products, reducing the landfill train, not harming the environment).
What a righteous people we have on the council.
Kauaians can’t find the trash cans on the beaches; fishermen, picnic groups, party goers (not tourists) hang the plastic bags filled with garbage in the trees where they must think that the bags filled with garbage will magically disappear.
I walk every day and pick up cans and trash along my walking path and fill the plastic bags multiple times. The council never thinks through the ideas they just act and run with it.
How about the proposal (by Bynum and Yukimura) that all the county diesel trucks should run on biofuel to save money and reduce oil dependency for the county?
Well, we are curious as to how that project worked out for the diesel fleet (county trucks, fire trucks, and the hazmat vehicle. We want to know how much money did the county save on fuel costs? The readers and the writer want to hear from the two council members, Bynum and Yukimura, who forced this down on the county motor pool. What was the savings? How did the truck fair? We want to know.
Hans Hellriegel, Kapa’a
Live aloha
On Monday we celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
One of the best quotes I’ve heard was from a guest on Oprah. It went something like this: “God created the humans, and the humans created racism.”
How true this statement is. Throughout the rest of the year let’s remember that everyone is equal. Let’s show our aloha to one another and to the people who visit our island.
As a bumper sticker suggested a few years ago, “Live Aloha.”
Howard Tolbe, ‘Ele‘ele
Daylight robbery
I was hoping to go to Honolulu to celebrate the New Year’s Eve, but changed my mind quickly when both airline tickets were charging around $290 round-trip, 100 percent higher than a non-holiday weekend.
I just went to Honolulu the past weekend and paid $145 round-trip. What a deal! Until I needed to fly home on Sunday night instead of Monday morning, I was informed by the ticket agent that I would be charged “the fare difference” It was $106 additional!
After picking myself up off the floor from fainting, and composing myself I asked “If the fare difference was less, would the airline reimburse me?” (a reasonable request). She looked at me like I was from another planet and said “No.”
I had no choice. With great annoyance I handed over my credit card and proceeded to my gate cursing under my breath and pulling out my hair. I felt robbed!
Why is it that both interisland carriers jack up the fare prices when it’s a public holiday and have so many hidden charges? Its like going to buy a bottle of water from the store to be charged $119 because the store knows I need it.
What if we the public declared one-day-a-month “No Fly Day” for interisland? And grounded all their planes for 24 hours? As a form of protest this could get some attention.
In the meantime “Hand over all your money this is a robbery!” I’m thinking of building a spaceship; anyone need a ride?
Jules Cannon, Lawa‘i
