December 30, 2008 > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

December 30, 2008
By Andrew Walden @ 9:58 PM :: 8528 Views

Legislative Agenda 2009: Privatize Maui Memorial?

(Now that MMMC has driven away private competitors, they seek to become private themselves.)

Maui Memorial Medical Center and its parent Hawaii Health Systems Corp. plan to go to the 2009 Legislature for permission to form alliances with nonprofit agencies to obtain financing and administrative skill. Making Maui's only full-service hospital a semiprivate operation is a step in the right direction.

The Legislature could begin 2009 on a high note by providing the authorization needed to form the public-private partnerships - as well as getting rid of the archaic certificate of need process. The year could end on a high note with Maui Memorial getting the financing it needs - perhaps even from the community itself - to bring its facilities in line with medicine's technical advances.

U.S. loan values drop 55%

Loan issuance in the U.S. in 2008 dropped 55 percent, from $1.69 trillion to $764 billion, making it the slowest year since 1994, according to a quarterly survey released Tuesday by Thomsom Reuters Loan Pricing Corp.

Advertiser: Preserve the core intent of high-tech tax credits

It's imperative that both sides carefully weigh the benefits of Act 221, which provides 100 percent tax credit for technology investments....

(So is anybody on the Advertiser Editorial Board trading in ACT 221 tax credits? Full disclosure--instead of secret deals--should be a key reform to ACT 221/ACT 215.)

Related LINK: HI Venture Capital Assn Pres points out interesting and revealing methods being used to control ACT 221 giveaways

Orchidland property owners may have to pay legal fee soon

The Orchidland Community Association wants to create a "legal defense fund" to supplement insurance protecting the financial assets of the association's 11-member Board of Directors.

"The current treasury cannot offer sufficient cash to compensate for the exclusions in the current insurance," it adds. "And realistically, the annual budget could not sustain the cost of a defense against a determined legal attack."
One lot owner is suing the association for punitive damages and alleged wrongful foreclosure of the owner's property.
Another owner's lawsuit claims the board has been acting in secret and refused the make the plaintiff a member of the board.

Honolulu transit tax revenues plummet

Transit tax collections last month totaled $13.2 million, versus $15.8 million in November 2007. Through the first five months of the fiscal year that ends June 30, transit tax collections are down nearly 6 percent to $67.7 million.

The state began collecting a half-percentage-point general excise tax surcharge for transit in January 2007, and $283 million was raised in the first 23 months, according to state tax department records.

City officials hope to raise nearly $4.1 billion, on an inflation-adjusted basis, between 2007 and 2022 to pay for the 20-mile rail system. That, coupled with about $1.2 billion in anticipated federal funds, is expected to pay the $5.3 billion in capital costs associated with rail, according to the city's financial plan.

(approx $300M / 2 yrs = $150M x 15 yrs = $2.25B, just a tad short of $4.1B)

Another Hookena Beach assailant gets jail

The third defendant to plead guilty to charges in the January 2007 assault on a group of campers at Hookena Beach Park will serve 60 days in jail.
Isaac Alani, 20, pleaded guilty in October, but submitted a request to have the plea deferred for a period of several years. Third Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Strance granted the deferral....