Letters to the editor: 06-09-19
Investors, part-timers part of affordable problem
Pat Hall doesn’t seem to realize that she is part of the problem with the shortage of homes for local residents. Her solution is just move. Her home in Balboa was not affordable so they got in their sailboat and came to Hawaii and apparently bought a home here.
Unfortunately not all keiki O Hawaii have access to a sailboat. They are to overburdened trying to keep up with the cost of living, the biggest cost being the cost of shelter. The reason is obvious, Hawaii is a beautiful place with some of the best weather, which brings people with money to invest in speculations, vacation rentals, and part-time homes.
Developers come over to build subdivisions with homes and condos, then have the nerve to pass off these as having X-amount of affordable units. For whom? I’ll never know, not one of the people in my circle lives in one or could afford one.
Moving is a limited option. I moved here from Oahu I could not afford to live there so I came out to Ocean View where I now live on an acre with a house that I am able to afford. For most of us, moving off island is not and option, the cost of the move is the major obstacle. Then there is the cultural difference. On the other hand, no matter what state you move to on the mainland, you find little or no change. You can find your culture, your way of thinking in any contiguous state.
In my opinion, the solution lies in taxing offshore land owners who don’t live here or live here part time at a rate that reduces their profit margins, making this line of investment unattractive.
My other suggestion is that the state stand up to the carpenter union, who is constantly lobbying our politicians to bring in development that has absolutely no benefit to the average local family.
Unfortunately this will never happen as long as those in office keep standing up with their arms stretched out.
Paul Santos
Ocean View
Sounds like crisis to me
Constitution crisis not withstanding, we have a problem. Mikie Kerr needs glasses maybe. If the head of the IRS after receiving a court order to release Trumps tax reports still is defying to release them is not a constitutional crisis, what is it?
If the Trump Administration has refused to abide by lawful subpoenas from congressional committees is not a constitutional crisis, then what is it? How is requesting an unredacted Mueller Report by the Intelligence Committee asking William Barr to break the law?
Seems to me that Mikie Kerr’s own definition of what a constitutional crisis has been met in several occasions by the actions taken of the Trump Administration in obstructing justice. Just because you are a Republican you can no longer defend obvious violations of the law.
We are a nation of laws. Those who break them must be held accountable. Attorney General Barr is failing to uphold his constitutional duties and is instead defending the president. Barr has been proven to have lied to the Congress on multiple occasions now. Ms. Kerr needs to wake up!
John Pierce
Waikoloa