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March 1, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 3:03 PM :: 150 Views

Caught Lying to Senate, Airports Division now blames Legislators for $23M Contract

The hidden problem with emergency powers

The Cruise Fee Quandary

Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted February 27 2026

Grassroot: Reducing the Cost of Living--Bills on the Move

Democrats Consider Five Candidates for HD28

“Constituents do not understand how lawmakers could boastfully promise a tax cut and then reverse themselves less than two years later.”

CB: … Some sessions of the Legislature are more enjoyable than others. This one is shaping up to be no fun at all.

The killjoy this year is a politically painful chore Gov. Josh Green has assigned to state lawmakers. He wants them to “pause” a series of scheduled state income tax cuts that would save Hawaiʻi taxpayers billions of dollars in the years ahead.

Green is essentially asking each member of the Legislature to cast election-year votes that will roll back a huge tax cut they promised to voters less than two years ago.

In the weeks ahead lawmakers will hear at least one bill to do as Green has asked, but they don’t seem to be looking forward to it.

“Everyone’s quiet about it,” said Joe Kent, executive vice president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaiʻi. “Even behind the scenes they’re quiet.” …

As Republican Sen. Kurt Fevella griped at one of the first budget hearings of this session: “We was happy to put in our flyers and let everybody know how much we going to work for the people and give them a tax break, and now we gotta tuck tail.”

“We’re already getting the phone calls,” remarked veteran Democratic Sen. Donna Kim at the same hearing on Jan. 7. Constituents do not understand how lawmakers could boastfully promise a tax cut, she said, and then reverse themselves less than two years later.

Lawmakers’ final decision on the tax cuts probably won’t become public until late April, which is a scant three months before the Aug. 8 primary election. It seems unlikely Green will have a formidable opponent when he runs for reelection this year, but other prominent Democrats might.

The entire state House and half of the Senate must run for reelection this year, including Kim and Fevella, so the political timing for this issue is just about as bad as it gets….

read … Suddenly Hawaiʻi Lawmakers Aren't Talking Much About Those Big Tax Cuts - Honolulu Civil Beat

$200M HSTA Giveaway to buy Election Support

Shapiro: … the greatest educational energy this legislative session hasn’t been about reform.

It’s been about finagling a way to give teachers $20,000 in hazard pay for the pandemic — $200 million total in a down economy — by raising rental car taxes or other means.

This despite that unlike other unionized public workers, the contract teachers negotiated doesn’t provide for hazard pay. And despite that Hawaii public schools were among the last to reopen for in- person learning in the pandemic because teachers didn’t want to risk exposure to COVID-19.

This payout won’t buy better public education, but it’ll buy lawmakers key political support in an election year….

read … Column: Rinse-and-repeat won’t fix our state’s broken schools | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Hawaii visitors are going to extremes as car rental rates double

SFG: … In one instance, a group of friends who landed in Kona on the island of Hawaii on Feb. 18 found Turo listings priced at over $2,200 for four days, before tax. “It’s absolutely insane. It’s more than our Airbnb,” TikTok user 222_iceman said in the post.

(CLUE: HSTA want legislators to increase rental car taxes.)

Rather than renting a car, the group bought a used car off Facebook Marketplace for $800, he said. “We’re just going to cruise in it all week. And then on Saturday when we’re leaving, we’re just going to give it away to a homeless person or something like that,” he said. (In a followup video, the friends gave the car to a local mother.) …

read … Hawaii visitors are going to extremes as car rental rates double

Federal Fraud Czar Knows All About Hawaii Corruption—helped convict Kealohas

CB: … As The Blog reported earlier, Colin McDonald, one of the federal prosecutors who helped convict former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha and his then-wife Katherine, is now working for President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., as the guy spearheading a new fraud division in the Department of Justice….

When asked by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, the committee’s 92-year-old chairman, what he would do to protect the elderly from fraud, McDonald brought up Florence Puana, Katherine Kealoha’s grandmother, whom the former city prosecutor was accused of bilking out of hundreds of thousands of dollars through a reverse mortgage scheme.

Although McDonald didn’t mention Puana by name, he did say it was his “distinct pleasure” to work with victims like her to bring justice to bad actors.

Puana was 99 years old when she testified against Kealoha and was a key witness for the prosecution, which secured a guilty verdict against the Kealohas and several others for the federal scandal related to framing Puana’s son for stealing a mailbox.

In reference to the elder Puana, McDonald said he had the satisfaction of “hearing her story, of believing her story, and then fighting for justice for her.” …

read … The Sunshine Blog: This Is Why The Public Has A Hard Time Watchdogging Cops - Honolulu Civil Beat

Democratic Contest Heats up in HD21

CB: … HD21 Palolo: Derek Turbin lost to Jackson Sayama by a mere 183 votes in the 2020 Democratic primary contest for House District 21. It was a race that featured two other candidates and drew almost 8,000 votes.

Now, with Sayama expected to challenge Les Ihara for the Senate District 10 seat in the Aug. 8 primary, Turbin plans another run for the House. He’s scheduled a fundraiser for March 10 at Da Shop on Harding Avenue.

Turbin tells The Blog that he’ll conclude his two-year term as chair of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi in May. At least three other Dems have pulled papers for the seat that represents St. Louis Heights, Pālolo Valley, Maunalani Heights, Wilhelmina Rise and Kaimukī on Oʻahu....

read … The Sunshine Blog: This Is Why The Public Has A Hard Time Watchdogging Cops - Honolulu Civil Beat

Keokahole Still Flogging the ‘Sue Big Oil’ Scam

CB: … Last month, I passed Senate Bill 3000 out of committee to empower our Hawaiʻi Attorney General Anne Lopez to pursue damages from large oil and gas corporations for their fair share of insurance costs after major weather disasters that are worsened by climate change.

(TRANSLATION: Fuel and electricity prices going up.)

This would ~~hold Big Oil accountable for their decades of deception and the costs they’re imposing on the public~~ (give shysters a mega payout) the same way Big Tobacco was held legally liable in the 1990s, and Big Pharma more recently following the opioid crisis…

(IDEA: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”)

Revenue recovered from successful legal action would be used to backfill financial losses of the Hawai‘i Property Insurance Association, a program that sells coverage to those unable to get home insurance policies from private-sector companies, and the Hawai‘i Hurricane Relief Fund, which now provides a financial backstop for condominium insurance in Hawai‘i as a result of the legislation I championed in 2024….

(IQ TEST: How hard are you laughing?)

Hawaiʻi is ~~not~~ (almost) alone in the ~~fight~~ (scam). Lawmakers in California and New York are (the only ones craven enough to be) advancing similar bills that give their attorneys general additional tools to hold ~~polluters accountable~~ (lawyers close to our bosom).

Hawaiʻi’s growing insurance crisis is accelerating in the aftermath of devastating wildfires that ripped through Maui, killing more than 100 people and causing over $2 billion in insured losses.

(IQ TEST: Do you blame HECO, KSBE, and Bissen?)

While there were many contributors to the severity of the damage in Lahaina, the record-breaking hurricane force winds and dry conditions that lit the spark and contributed to the speed at which it spread are attributable to our dramatically changed climate.

(IQ TEST: How hard are you laughing?)

FORTUNATELY THIS SCAM IS ABOUT TO BE ENDED: Supreme Court to hear Challenge to Big Oil Climate Change Lawsuit

read … Make Big Oil Pay For Wrecking Hawaiʻi Home Insurance - Honolulu Civil Beat

Latest $ multi-billion ‘overhaul’ of Hawaii airports advances

SA: … The state Department of Transportation is advancing a $7 billion pipeline of airport construction and modernization projects over the next six to seven years, a scale Hawaii has never attempted before as it works to overhaul terminals, airfields and support facilities statewide….

DOT Airports officials reported $6.86 billion in capital improvement projects underway or planned statewide, including $4.02 billion in terminal improvements, $1.8 billion in airfield work and $1.04 billion in ancillary infrastructure. Federal grants — current and anticipated — total $520.3 million, the department said.

Hawaii DOT spokesperson Russell Pang said all of the projects are expected to be completed by 2032 or 2033, provided that everything falls in line, including securing federal dollars. The projects are funded through airport user fees that include airline rents and landing fees, federal grants, passenger facility charges and airport revenue bonds that will be paid back with airport user fees. State general funds and state taxes will not be used….

Honolulu ranked 22nd out of 27 large airports in the 2025 J.D. Power North America Airport Satisfaction Study, up from 24th and 26th in the prior two years….

NOT MENTIONED: Caught Lying to Senate, Airports Division now blames Legislators for $23M Contract

REALITY: Naming Names: Airports Division Ran Late-Night Parties Where Hawaii Politicians Raked In Money

read … $7 billion overhaul of Hawaii airports advances | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

HB2505: Court ordered treatment for homeless with mental illness

SA: … A deepening clash between state lawmakers, community providers and the state Department of Health is putting renewed scrutiny on how Hawaii handles defendants with serious mental illness — and whether gaps in the system are fueling a costly “revolving door” between jail, the Hawaii State Hospital and the streets.

At the center of the debate is House Bill 2505, which could streamline assisted community treatment, or ACT, and clarify that community mental health outpatient programs can prepare court certificates required to place someone in treatment.

But lawmakers say the bill also exposes a larger problem: Even when defendants are repeatedly found unfit to stand trial, few are being placed into court-ordered treatment.

HB 2505 aims to address part of the breakdown by clarifying that community mental health outpatient programs that agree to provide services under an ACT order may prepare the required certificate for the court.

State Rep. Adrian Tam (D, Waikiki), who introduced the bill, said current law largely limits that authority to advanced practice registered nurses, referred to as APRNs, on crisis teams, and the measure would speed access to care by allowing community mental health outpatient programs to prepare the required certificates as well….

read … State faces scrutiny for treatment of homeless with mental illness | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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