Photo by Anita Hofschneider, Associated Press It’s a rare man who enters politics and leaves this world mourned as much by his political adversaries as his friends and allies. Sam Slom was a rare man. A former chief economist at Bank of Hawaii, president of Small Business Hawaii, member of
Hawaii’s Legislature passed 274 bills this year — out of more than 3,000 introduced. But so far, Gov. Josh Green has signed only a handful of them. That leaves a lot of bills for him to read and decide their fates. So in the spirit of “E hana kākou” (“Let’s
Legendary football coach Bear Bryant is credited with saying: “Offense wins games … defense wins championships.” If that’s the case, then the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii is the Steel Curtain, the ’85 Bears and the 2000 Ravens of legislative advocacy. What you see might not always be flashy, but it
As Shakespeare might have put it: “Friends, neighbors, taxpayers, lend me your ears. I have come to bury the Hawaii Legislature, not to praise it. The bad laws our legislators enact live after them, while the good are oft interred in committees.” That is certainly what happened to the many good proposals
Yesterday was an amazing day at the state Capitol. After four months of hashing out the fate of more than 4,000 bills that were introduced in the 2023 Legislature, it finally became clear which big-ticket items were going to make it to the governor’s desk for signing — or hit
Oahu residents are keenly aware of the yearslong saga in which leakage from the U.S. Navy’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Moanalua has been contaminating the island’s water supply, sickening residents and forcing thousands of people out of their homes. The situation became so bad that the Pentagon
Every year we see a handful of bills at the Legislature that put good intentions ahead of practical experience. Even when the people who would be most affected by the proposals explain that they are unworkable or counterproductive, those good intentions still keep the bills moving forward. Happily, many of
No one likes the idea of our county governments profiting from Hawaii’s high cost of living. But that’s what is going to happen soon unless we engineer some property tax relief. Thanks to higher property assessments statewide, Hawaii homeowners and others are facing massive increases in their property taxes. That’s
It seems a lot of people were surprised last week to hear that the huge Walmart store in Downtown Honolulu will be closing this month. It’s tempting to speculate about what this means for the future of retail in the area, but we shouldn’t make broad assumptions based on the closure of
Photo by Charley Myers Another year, another attempt to reform the Hawaii Tourism Authority. Last year, the question was whether the Legislature should defund the HTA, which was established in 1998 to promote tourism to the islands. This year, some legislators have put forth a bill, SB1522, that would replace the
Photo by Anita Hofschneider, Associated Press It’s a rare man who enters politics and leaves this world mourned as much by his political adversaries as his friends and allies. Sam Slom was a rare man. A former chief economist at Bank of Hawaii, president of Small Business Hawaii, member of
Hawaii’s Legislature passed 274 bills this year — out of more than 3,000 introduced. But so far, Gov. Josh Green has signed only a handful of them. That leaves a lot of bills for him to read and decide their fates. So in the spirit of “E hana kākou” (“Let’s
Legendary football coach Bear Bryant is credited with saying: “Offense wins games … defense wins championships.” If that’s the case, then the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii is the Steel Curtain, the ’85 Bears and the 2000 Ravens of legislative advocacy. What you see might not always be flashy, but it
As Shakespeare might have put it: “Friends, neighbors, taxpayers, lend me your ears. I have come to bury the Hawaii Legislature, not to praise it. The bad laws our legislators enact live after them, while the good are oft interred in committees.” That is certainly what happened to the many good proposals
Yesterday was an amazing day at the state Capitol. After four months of hashing out the fate of more than 4,000 bills that were introduced in the 2023 Legislature, it finally became clear which big-ticket items were going to make it to the governor’s desk for signing — or hit
Oahu residents are keenly aware of the yearslong saga in which leakage from the U.S. Navy’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility in Moanalua has been contaminating the island’s water supply, sickening residents and forcing thousands of people out of their homes. The situation became so bad that the Pentagon
Every year we see a handful of bills at the Legislature that put good intentions ahead of practical experience. Even when the people who would be most affected by the proposals explain that they are unworkable or counterproductive, those good intentions still keep the bills moving forward. Happily, many of
No one likes the idea of our county governments profiting from Hawaii’s high cost of living. But that’s what is going to happen soon unless we engineer some property tax relief. Thanks to higher property assessments statewide, Hawaii homeowners and others are facing massive increases in their property taxes. That’s
It seems a lot of people were surprised last week to hear that the huge Walmart store in Downtown Honolulu will be closing this month. It’s tempting to speculate about what this means for the future of retail in the area, but we shouldn’t make broad assumptions based on the closure of
Photo by Charley Myers Another year, another attempt to reform the Hawaii Tourism Authority. Last year, the question was whether the Legislature should defund the HTA, which was established in 1998 to promote tourism to the islands. This year, some legislators have put forth a bill, SB1522, that would replace the
