Letters for Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012
• PLDC has smelled fishy from the start • Raising taxes would be ‘apex of stupidity’ • Disagreeing with claims made by Bartolo
PLDC has smelled fishy from the start
From the very birth of the Public Land Development Corporation something smelled fishy. This bill was initially introduced to the Senate on Jan. 26, 2011, as an independent development corporation intended to maximize the development and revenue generation of public lands. It did not contain broad exemptions from land use laws, and it also originally included full Neighbor Island representation in the board.
This version sailed through the Senate without opposition. However, in March 2011, the exemptions were changed and Neighbor Island representation on the PLDC Board was stripped away.
The only opportunity for the public to be heard in response to these critical changes was on April 7, 2011, in the House Finance Committee where the Finance Chair waived the normal 48-hour public notice rule giving the public exactly 115 minutes notice to voice their concern.
Once in “conference” where public testimony is not allowed, the bill was changed to grant the PLDC and its private partners extraordinary powers over the development of public lands and also made it exempt from all county zoning, planning and land use laws, and gave all the power to control this development to three appointees.
This bill (Act 55) has had huge opposition from all neighboring islands and the residents of Hawai‘i have repeatedly asked that Act 55 be repealed and the PLDC abolished.
This “corporation” is supposedly meant to help create funds for the Department of Land and Natural Resources, yet the corporation’s operating budget is derived from funds for the land conservation program.
The PLDC has broad powers for entering into private partnerships and establishing its own government objectives and policies. The PLDC is in charge of identifying state lands under DLNR that are suitable for development.
So let’s review: this is a private “corporation” which basically takes orders from Gov. Abercrombie, they are immune to existing laws and their sole purpose is to develop any state land they choose. Smell fish yet?
Lyra Drouin
Kapa‘a
Raising taxes would be ‘apex of stupidity’
Dr. Skip Rush opines that Republicans imperil entitlements, block preservation of Bush tax-cuts, protect the top 2 percent, and other vile deeds.
But it’s Obama who raided Medicare to the tune of $700M, for yet another federal entitlement. It’s Obama who called for raising taxes in a recession by letting Bush tax-cuts expire. These could be extended today if Obama wanted. It could have been done during his first two years when he owned both houses of Congress. Republican efforts in no way prevent those extensions. They favor them.
Raising taxes in a slump is the apex of stupidity. Obama said as much himself a couple of years ago. Confiscating all wealth of the top 2 percent (who already pay over 40 percent of federal income tax) wouldn’t make a dent in the debt. That Everest of IOUs is now $16T, having increased 60 percent in two years of Democrat control. The Republicans didn’t gain the House until 2010. Debt will easily reach $20T by the end of Obama’s current term, due to the Party of Government’s two-year binge.
Obama was ignorant of the debt total when questioned on Letterman. Bush 43 failed to control spending, but he’s a piker compared to Obama. More growth and less government are what’s needed.
Maybe it’s worth questioning when a major party is accused of wanting to “obliterate (entitlements)” and protect 2 percent of the electorate at the expense of the other 98 percent. What possible benefit would accrue to a party wanting to remain viable? Could the accusers have an agenda?
But it’s very obvious why a certain party would lie and cover up about the murders of Americans at Benghazi and those following Fast and Furious, not to mention a bought-and-paid-for stimulus that only put us deeper in the hole.
John Burns
Princeville
Disagreeing with claims made by Bartolo
Bob Bartolo makes a number of false claims in his Dec. 9 letter:
Romney received 47 percent of the popular vote, not 49 percent. But who cares?
Bush is responsible for our economic woes and he will always be responsible for the hole he put us in until the end of time, just like Herbert Hoover was responsible for the Great Depression.
I’d love to know which media is in “love” with Obama. I hear mostly criticism. I could offer a very long list of things Obama is not doing, but I sure am glad Romney isn’t president. Romney would be selling us to the Chinese.
The wealthy have the money! How do you expect to get tax revenue from people who have nothing? And they have nothing because Romney (et. al.) sent their jobs to China.
Romney (et. al.) already hides his money off-shore.
If Mr. Bartolo wants to stop the debt problems, he might look at the money wasted on Bush’s stupid wars and the Department of Defense.
He might want to ask why many “American” corporations actually pay no tax and, in fact, get refunds that come out of his (and my) pocket.
He might look at Medicare Part D and ask why the drug companies are charging retail.
He might look at Obamacare and ask why the insurance companies are still allowed to skim 20 percent off the top — and compare that to the 3 percent administrative costs for Medicare.
The greed of the stupidly wealthy knows no end.
John Zwiebel
Princeville