• Say no to being slaves for government • HHSC doing best with financial shortfall • Ross, Mel deserve your vote Say no to being slaves for government Dear Kauai taxpayers, We need courage to confront our County Council, including our mayor, to reject big
• Say no to being slaves for government • HHSC doing best with financial shortfall • Ross, Mel deserve your vote
Say no to being slaves for government
Dear Kauai taxpayers,
We need courage to confront our County Council, including our mayor, to reject big property tax increases we can’t afford.
Our paychecks have been reduced over the last couple of years. We pay $1 more a gallon for gasoline, more for lights for our homes, food, etc. than on the Mainland.
We all have to live by our own budgets, so does our government.
We have two ways to stop the County Council’s tax increase. Don’t vote for any candidate who voted for the increase and, most of all, don’t vote for our current mayor. Refuse to pay any increase for the 2014-2015 budget. Just pay the amount from last year’s tax.
We, as private citizens, have to manage our monthly budget so we have to demand the same from our county, state and federal governments.
If we don’t stand up now, we always will be slaves of our government.
Adolf Befurt
Kapaa
HHSC doing best with financial shortfall
The board of directors for the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation’s (HHSC) Kauai region – Kauai Veterans Memorial Hospital, Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital and West Kauai Clinics, would like to thank the community for your participation at recent board and public meetings.
Please be assured that we greatly value your testimony and engagement in this process. We have reviewed your comments and have taken them into consideration as we plan our path forward. We will continue to do so as suggestions and ideas are presented.
Given the depth of the financial shortfall of the HHSC statewide system, and in particular the deficit HHSC’s Kauai region is facing, chiefly a projected $11 million regional budget shortfall for fiscal year 2015, responsible decisions will need to be made. The budget shortfall we are facing is primarily a result of the sharp decline in state subsidies. Unfortunately, without proactive intervention, these shortfalls are expected to increase dramatically over the upcoming budget years as subsidy funding continues to come under pressure.
We are working diligently toward improving our revenues, decreasing expenses, developing strategic alignments, implementing best-practices and other internal efficiencies while continuing to maintain and improve the great quality of the health care that we provide to our Kauai community. We have made enormous strides in these initiatives thus far, yet there is much more to accomplish. Our goals and objectives are for a vibrant and stable health care system for all the people of Kauai, providing the needed services to our communities within the financial constraints facing our state community hospital system.
In the coming months, we plan to keep you apprised as we make decisions and implement the changes that we hope will stabilize the finances of the HHSC Kauai Region.
Wade Lord, chair
Kauai Region Board of Directors
Hawaii Health Systems Corporation
Ross, Mel deserve your vote
If you are a hunter, wife or friend, a lover of dogs — poi or registered pure breeds, vote for Ross Kagawa and Mel Rapozo. They are the councilmembers who considered you and did not raise the dog tax to the highest in the country, with the poorest people, and now the tax on cats.
The council is at fault for the feral cat problem. People cannot afford the tax on cats along with the fine that comes with the lack of purchasing cat tax. They take a ride to the shopping center with the cat, go shopping, leave the car window open, and out goes the cat, saving them the agony of getting the cat out of their home. An added cat to the feral cat population doesn’t take long for kittens to arrive.
Ross and Mel did not vote to tax the dogs and cats. Vote for them. They are the true people’s councilmen. Consider the others on the council, if they are going to treat the dogs (man’s best friend) that way — people are going to be next.
Robert Hamada
Native of Kauai
