Institute a lottery instead of raising taxes
The Oahu rail system seems doomed to failure. There is just no money and no Daniel Inouye or Daniel Akaka. So, that leaves only one way our illustrious politicians know of getting money and that is to raise taxes on the already overtaxed people of Hawaii. What is needed is some or a lot of innovation. One innovation that the people of Hawaii should give serious thought to is a lottery. Lotteries have been proven to raise money for those states that have a lottery in place. As a start, a Hawaii lottery could be set up with a moratorium in place that once the funds needed for completion of the rail system are raised you simply shut down the lottery. This is just one way the needed money could be raised without adding the burden of another tax on to “we the people.” It would be nice to get the public’s opinion on this subject.
The main thing to a successful lottery or any other fund raising scheme is to keep our politicians’ hands off of it.
Hugo von Platen Luder
Holualoa
Development will put added strain on Kahaluu Beach Park
Our precious Kahaluu beach is already suffering from old sewer pipes and high bacteria counts. If the condominium is allowed to be built, not only will it add to the already strained infrastructure of the place, but can you imagine all those extra people trampling on the coral and killing them? It is hard enough talking to our regular visitors daily about avoiding, touching or stepping on the coral, but to have a huge unit like that across the road will just add unnecessary burden on our park. The county can’t even keep up with repairing the existing main pavilion, let alone the sewage line, so we definitely do not need additional burden put on our fragile ecosystem.
Colleen Miyose-Wallis
Reef Teacher volunteer at Kahaluu Beach
Consequences could have been worse for graffiti offender
Your front page article in the May 12 WHT on the Mauna Kea spray-painter sounded as though she was proud to be a transplant member of the Lawful Hawaiian Government. If there is such a group, I wonder if they are proud to have her as a member.
It was interesting to read that as punishment, she would rather go to jail or help clean up clean up the graffiti. I wonder, if she is asked to help clean up the graffiti, would they need to supply her with transportation and lunch also?
I’ve got news for her. If she was really living under Hawaii Kingdom Law, the punishment for desecrating the kapu of a sacred site is death. Instant death carried out immediately!
Lucky for us who live under the constitution of the United States and Hawaii is one of the 50. It saved her okole.
Leningrad Elarionoff
Waimea