Entries for 'Keli'i Akina PhD'

... Some members of the Hawaii County Council are proposing tighter regulations on hosted short-term rentals ....

... bureaucracy and red tape have become a major barrier to affordable housing in Hawaii ....

... More than 15,000 people left Hawaii for the mainland last year ....

... we have high hopes for a few ideas that could make a real difference for our state ....

... Most compelling was the governor's proposal to increase tax deductions and support open records, but all the talk about spending was worrisome ....

... The only question is whether they have the political will ....

... Hawaii’s population has been declining for six straight years, and if policymakers don’t do something quickly to avert the looming increase in county property taxes, that is likely to continue ....

... Grassroot Institute of Hawaii’s “wins” over the past year ....

... Gov. Josh Green made eliminating the general excise tax for food and medicine one of his major talking points. And on the county level, faced with concerns about skyrocketing real estate assessments, Mayor Rick Blangiardi promised to “aggressively” pursue ways to reduce that tax burden. ....

... bold proposals for legislative reform ....

... Since the state Land Use Commission was created in 1976, “there’s just been a massive falloff on development,” Akina said. Indeed, only 2% of Hawaii island’s land is committed to urban housing and development. Statewide, that percentage is 4% for Kauai and Maui and 26% for Oahu. ...

... assessments of all real property on Oahu went up by 12.4% compared with the previous year. And that’s just the average ....

... American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands are both exempt from the Jones Act — and they like it that way ....

... “License to Work” study looks at state regulations nationwide ....

... 22 financial transactions, worth over $7 million, made by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs ....

... Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It ....

... many Hawaii families are taking a hard look at their finances and calculating how inflation and recession will affect their holiday plans, if not their entire economic futures ....

... If we don’t demand action, followup on our demands and show the consequences at the ballot box, then we have failed in our civic duty ....

... The PM report found 22 of the 38 questionable transactions with evidence of fraud, waste and abuse ... OHA noted matters requiring criminal prosecution will be turned over to the relevant authorities for appropriate action ....

... delays, missing emails and bureaucratic difficulties ....

“...Powerful members of our community engaged in wrongdoing…various official watchdogs engage in willful blindness....”

... Formerly known as Bill 41, the new law was supposed to go into effect this week, but a federal judge temporarily blocked it until its provisions can be hashed out in court ....

... The result is exactly what we have in Hawaii: a lot of talk about lowering the cost of housing, but very little effective reform ....

“...First, do no harm....”

“...Are out-of-state buyers, especially foreigners, really driving Hawaii’s high home prices?....”

... they told me, ‘Send this person to Costco’ ....

... It’s hard not to look at the delay, political gamesmanship and dueling press statements and wonder how long it will be until Hawaii is in a similar situation ....

... I have been a strong advocate of protecting OHA’s funds from fraud, waste and abuse. I am as passionate about growing those funds to meet the needs of Hawaiians ....

... Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet ....

... many government watchdog entities appear to have been willfully ignoring, or even tacitly approving, some of Hawaii’s most egregious corruption scandals, according to Randy Roth ....

... how we got to this point ....

... the average delay for permits or approvals in Hawaii is more than three times as high as the national mean ....

... Here are some examples of “Red Flag” disbursements by OHA and the concerns raised by CLA ....

... Does the state have a responsibility to “go without,” if that would be better for the people? ....

... the Jones Act is harmful to the territory of Puerto Rico, and people throughout the U.S. should be skeptical of it, says Luis Ponce, co-founder and action director of the Boricuas Unidos en la Diaspora ....

... It is tempting to look for scapegoats when we talk about Hawaii’s housing crisis ....

... in Hawaii County, residential permits take about 143 days to issue. In Honolulu, it’s 108 days for residential projects and 432 days for commercial projects over $1 million ....

... more regulation and delays ....

"...We’ve been renters all our lives...."

... The right way requires the involvement of the Legislature. It might be slower, but it is constitutional, democratic and results in real, lasting change ....

... The most recent example of this comes from Maui, where just this week the County Council killed a housing project that would have created 28 affordable units in Kihei ....

... The assumption is that they would simply have to take that additional loss ....

... It’s not just Hawaii residents who are being priced out of paradise. Slowly but surely, tourists are also wondering whether they can still afford to visit here ....

... Ige has until July 12th to veto ....

... Earlier this week, Gov. David Ige announced his “intent to veto” SB3089, a bill that aims to reform the state’s emergency powers law ....

... there are 18 candidates for six OHA trustee positions ....

... It was sold to the public on the promise that it would only cost about $4 billion, that it would be completed by 2019 and that the general excise tax surcharge associated with it would end by 2022 ....

... The former chairman of the University of Hawaii’s civil engineering department says aloha ....

... From a rate of 1.9% in 2018, inflation jumped to 7.1% in 2021 and was 8.2% as of April 2022 ....

... Hawaii’s policymakers haven’t given up the dream of regulating it into oblivion ....