• Come and meet Mr. Barca • Creativity needed, not taxes, fees • H-3 for massive development on Kauai Come and meet Mr. Barca Dustin Barca is initiating his “run for mayor” this weekend (5/29-6/1) by paddling from Hanalei to Polihale and then walking
• Come and meet Mr. Barca • Creativity needed, not taxes, fees • H-3 for massive development on Kauai
Come and meet Mr. Barca
Dustin Barca is initiating his “run for mayor” this weekend (5/29-6/1) by paddling from Hanalei to Polihale and then walking or jogging around the rest of Kauai as a means to introduce himself and his vision to the people of Kauai.
Mr. Barca’s vision of Kauai includes our ability to grow our own food, restore our water quality, revive the Hawaiian culture and put a “kapu” on drugs, especially “ice” which is decimating Kauai families at a truly frightening rate. His campaign focuses on creating self-sustainability for Kauai. Did you know that if our food shipments were interrupted by anything, we would be out of food in about 3-5 days? We import 90 percent of our food! Our water quality is being eroded by the poor farming and land management techniques we continue to allow to operate on Kauai. It doesn’t have to be that way.
In the past under the Hawaiian system of natural resource management, no one went hungry, everyone had a job, no one was homeless. And the island was supporting over 100,000 people! We can create that again. Kauai has the opportunity to become a beacon for the whole world in demonstrating how people of vision can create a lifestyle of self-sustainability, harmony with nature and cooperation among ourselves. I urge you to make the effort to get out and meet Mr. Barca as he circumnavigates our lovely island. Learn about him and his vision for Kauai and then follow your heart at election time. Mahalo nui loa.
Wendy Beckett
Kapaa
Creativity needed, not taxes, fees
When you hire people to work or vote people into office and then pay these people to provide the services that they do it becomes the grand part of being in business. Simply put, in the real world of business we do the same basic things that the county and state do. We create businesses, where we might hire people to provide our services to the public and in return the consumer of those services pays for them. The only difference is that the county and state use the taxes and fees they collect from the property owners to provide services to all citizens and then raise the taxes and fees again and again when the can’t make ends meet. In other words, we are punished to forcefully donate more or else. If the private businesses conduct business this way they eventually go bankrupt. Unlike the county, we can’t force people to pay more for our services just because we can’t make ends meet. The county is fortunate to have money trees in their courtyard.
The worst part of this observation is that our County Council recently has drawn a “business as usual” picture of the way they envision to create a solution to their budget proposal. It seems to be the only way this team of creative minds works. Again, back in the world of reality, successful business requires being creative in how it runs, or kiss your investment and future down the road. If the county should only depend on property taxes and fees for their services income, and not be creative for other sources of income opportunities, or find ways for bigger cuts, they would be foolish. Maybe this is the time for a county manager government.
The County Council should be creating incentives of ideas and exhausting all efforts to create income through other sources besides property taxes, fees or increases to the cost of businesses.
In this year’s election, I’m looking for candidates who are willing to move new income sources in motion to offset the lag in income to balance the budget now and future. Council members have tough decisions, but when I hear the only way to balance the budget is to “raise taxes and fees” it shows all of us you all can do better job creating financial solutions.
Steve Martin
Kapaa
H-3 for massive development on Kauai
Did you get a “CONFIDENTIAL” survey in the mail regarding the proposed Puhi and Hanamaulu bypass road on ag land? Guess what? It’s not confidential. The cover letter/survey and the return envelope contain matching bar codes, which link your name and address.
Yellow cards were mailed to residents for notice of a public meeting. Confidential surveys were sent to a few. That means the county has satisfied their public obligations and can proceed with “improvised” approval. A handful of confidential respondents could make an artificial percentage in their favor.
Who or what is behind the push for this road? Why is county public works being duplicitous? Why is the survey not available online to anyone that may be interested in participating? (It is online, if you have a personal password). Why were the people who received the survey not informed of the public meeting?
A resident who received a yellow card to attend the meeting was shut down in the middle of “question and answer” because “Joanne Yukimura has her hand up.” Others unsuccessfully attempted to speak.
For now, we will compare this to H-3; rammed through by Inouyeʻs environmental exemption as a rider on a Department of Defense budget bill. The claim is to alleviate traffic congestion. Adding more line miles has never ever solved the long-range traffic problems. It does the opposite and destroys rural Kauai. This is not Oahu.
We request public meetings for all Kauai residents on this proposed mega transformation of Kauai.
Elaine Dunbar
Lihue
