West Hawaii Civic Center On Track, Hawaii Superferry Files For Bankruptcy,Royal Hawaiian Treasury Bonds Scam,Head Of The HGEA Is Urging More Tax Increases

I had forgotten to mention that the Coupe’s have 30 days from the entry of final judgment to do any appeals. Judge Ibarra issued the final judgment on May 15th, 2009. Thus they have until June 15th, 2009 to file an appeal.

It is certainly a good sign that the West Hawaii Civic Center is on track.This facility will be a huge benefit to the community by consolidating all county services currently spread around West Hawaii into one location.

The parent company of Hawaii Superferry filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Saturday.This is another huge black eye for Hawaii. Sen. Sam Slom is right that it will be very long time before anyone takes the risk to invest money here in Hawaii again.However this could’ve been avoided if the State of Hawaii followed the law and didn’t exempt the Hawaii Superferry from doing a EIS.

But unfortunately that didn’t happen. Thus Hawaii’s taxpayers will likely be on the hook for the 40 million in harbor infrastructure improvements specifically built for the HSF and paying for the the impending lawsuits to be filed by the Hawaii Superferry investors.

The FBI is still targetting the backers of Royal Hawaiian Treasury Bonds. These financial instruments are being issued a Hawaiian Sovereignty group Ko Hawaii Pae Aina to allegedly eliminate outstanding debts because the bond holders are a part of the Hawaiian nation and exempted from U.S laws.These shenanigans make the overall Hawaiian sovereignty movement lose creditability and make it even harder for the groups legitimately trying to redress what happened in the past.

Lastly, the head of the HGEA is again urging that the State of Hawaii increase the GET to make up for the state’s new projected budget shortfalls.You don’t raise taxes in a middle of a painful recession to balance the budget.The latter should be done as a last resort. In lieu of raising taxes, the bloated size of state government should trimmed along with furloughs and layoffs of government workers.