Enough already
How can the mayor stand up and say that the tax surcharge he wants is a gift to the people of this island? It’s not a gift when you are paying for it yourself, surely.
The mayor has gotten gas tax hikes, extra TAT money, and property tax value increases. All there is to show for it are bloated county employee raises and housing for the homeless. We don’t even have a bus system that works or a functioning water department, so who knows what he’ll waste the surcharge on. And his good news is that it will be double the amount that he expected if the council approves it.
Seriously, Mr. Mayor, you spend like a kid with your parents’ credit card, you have no fiscal restraint or a sad grasp of reality on the taxpayers of this island who are trying to make ends meet.
For myself and I’m sure others, enough is enough.
Mike Bloomfield
Kailua-Kona
Half-cent surcharge addition increases GET by one-eighth
Our mayor called increasing the excise tax by 12.5 percent (from 4 to 4.5 cents per dollar) a gift. With a statement like that, we can see why our county government is in financial trouble.
How inconsiderate of the mayor to call a grossly unfair tax a gift, like it’s a Christmas present from Santa Claus. The excise tax is the most unfair tax in county government.
The tax is on all of us but unjustly affects the poor who use a large majority of their income to support their basic needs.
Yes, it is a gift to an ineffective county bureaucracy that will gobble up the extra money and look for ways to get more instead of looking for ways to make the county more efficient.
Bill Brado
Kailua-Kona
Prioritize our infrastructure
The Daniel K. Inouye Highway Extension, which completes a critical cross-island link on the Big Island, doesn’t have any funding committed to begin construction anytime soon. I understand it will be difficult to come up with the roughly $70 million to $90 million to construct this highway at this point. However, I strongly believe the State of Hawaii and the federal government need to immediately proceed with this project without any delay.
This proposed highway will provide and improve not only traffic circulation in South Kohala, but also regionally. As it stands now, Kawaihae Road and Waikoloa Road are the primary roadways that link the legacy Daniel Inouye Highway with Kawaihae Harbor. This means increased military and commercial truck traffic are overburdening these roadways. Both of these existing roadways have serious design deficiencies, or have aging bridge infrastructure, not designed for this vehicular volume.
Aging, or inadequate, roadway infrastructure isn’t the sole reason to construct this roughly 10.5-mile highway. It will give the military an alternative route to reach the Pohakuloa Training Area. These soldiers, along with their weapons and vehicles, have to drive through highly populated areas, creating a safety hazard. Roadway safety, or improving our aging roadway infrastructure isn’t the sole reason to fund the construction of this highway. It will provide much-needed economic activity, and construction jobs over the two-year duration of this project.
I understand these are tight budgetary times. HDOT is allocating more funding toward system preservation and safety improvements going forward. Yes, the HDOT needs to maintain its existing infrastructure, but it shouldn’t lose sight that new highways need to be built to reduce traffic congestion and improve roadway circulation.
Aaron Stene
Kailua-Kona