Shame on council, mayor
You’re no longer even trying to hide your contempt for the people and businesses of Puna. You don’t listen to the people at all. You don’t work with Puna’s representatives to accomplish anything. Lava viewing area has been a bunch of hot air that has not materialized for months. Pahoa pool remains closed, no timeline to re-open. No tax relief for local businesses that got absolutely slammed by the eruption and are hanging on by a thread. You have blocked just about every attempt by residents to solve any of their own problems including increasing temporary housing, creating lava viewing areas, re-opening roads and getting permits in Leilani to repair structures damaged by the eruption.
So what are you doing? Trying to use the eruption to get state money to spend elsewhere on island, in places like Hilo. Trying to take away Puna’s short-term vacation rentals so people are forced to stay at large resorts in Hilo, which will take an enormous amount of money and economic activity out of Puna. Dragging your feet on every single initiative put forth by the people of Puna and Puna’s representatives to help boost long-term economic recovery. And that’s absolutely unacceptable and shameful!
It’s one thing for the people to suffer because of a natural disaster. It’s quite another for that suffering to be made worse at the hands of local government officials who are being paid lots of money to represent the people. You’re hurting jobs, hurting businesses, hurting tourism, hurting recovery and even hurting the people’s efforts to create more temporary housing projects and open up roads themselves!
County Council, Mayor Kim, almost everything you guys are doing is making the suffering in Puna worse. Where’s your strong leadership? How are you instilling hope and a vision for the future for a people who have suffered such tremendous loss?
If you don’t want to help the people of Puna, that’s your choice, and you will have to live with that record. But get out of the way and let the people take care of themselves and bring about their own recovery!
Ryan Finlay
Puna
Decrease government size
One of the primary reasons Hawaii has the highest cost of living in the nation is that government is too humongous. We spend so much on education and definitely don’t get back the bang for the buck. We need an audit of Hawaii’s educational systems.
I can’t see why the state constructs so many University of Hawaii campuses that spread throughout the state, yet it can’t even keep up with upkeep costs. Seems schizophrenic.
Being a Christian, I don’t like the idea of a lottery because the negative repercussions would be humongous, too. Homelessness would skyrocket in a state that already has one of the highest homeless rates in the United States. We just have to vote smarter. Personally, I voted Republican for they are for a smaller form of government and less taxes.
I say the state of Hawaii should institute a voucher system where students and parents get to send their keiki to schools of their choice. Make government in Hawaii smaller and more efficient. Make it a Hawaii that can be more business friendly. Imagine a Harvard Hawaii campus or a Princeton Hawaii campus. The possibilities are enormous in Hawaii with a smaller government.
Dean Nagasako
Honokaa