Kalani High School Aloha Aina Earth Day

Saturday, January 14, 2011 | 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM

You can help Kalani High School with their Recycling Program.

Questions? Call Julia 586-8420.

DOWNLOAD THE ALOHA AINA FLYER

(PDF)

Opening Day to Be Scaled Back

State Senate and House leadership have decided to scale back the annual opening day activities of the Hawaii State Legislature. Instead of the large ceremony filled with speeches and entertainment, the leadership decided to “diligently address the problems confronting this state” by reverting to a “working” opening day that “would be consistent with this expectation.” In other words, just a normal “business session” where the formalities of opening the session with the introduction of formal resolutions will be on the order of the day.

As the Senate Minority Leader, I expect that I will be able to deliver my opening day speech as I have in the past, addressing the most pressing problems (budget, education, economy, energy, environment and more) in search of solutions for the coming year. The 2012 Legislature will commence on Wednesday, January 18 starting at 10:00 a.m. in both the Senate and House chambers.

Because of the scaled back opening, there will be no invitations sent out to family or guests. No one from the public will be seated on the Senate or House floors and gallery seating will be on a “first come first serve” basis. Tickets will not be distributed.

My Senate office will be holding an “after session” get together complete with soft drinks, snacks, entertainment and conversation. You are invited to our office on opening day in Room 214.

The scaled back opening day will be very much like the one done during the 2010 session.

Stop the Spending: Hawaii’s Finances Need To Be Controlled

By State Senator Sam Slom
Originally published in HawaiiReporter.com
November 8, 2011

The 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) showing the financial condition of the state government was just published, and it showed a substantial cost increase for medical services for state employees.

As Hawaii Reporter recently reported, “the 2009 CAFR shows an unfunded liability for the Employees Union Trust Fund of $7.2 billion and for the Hawaii State Teachers Association’s Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association (VEBA) of $1.6 billion for a total of $8.8 billion (for July 1, 2007, even though the CAFR is for June 30, 2009). Whereas the 2010 CAFR details unfunded liability for the EUTF of $11.5 billion and for the Hawaii State Teachers Association’s VEBA of $2.5 billion for a total of $14.0 billion. (These numbers are for July 1, 2009.).”

This is an increase of 60 percent or $5.2 billion in just two years, largely because Hawaii has among the most generous health benefits in the nation, but we have to do what we can to get these growing costs under control.

Every year at the Hawaii State Legislature, I sponsored senate legislation to establish fiscal notes, alternative budgeting, reform for health care and changes for the public Employee Retirement System.

The Administration is content with lame efforts to ‘slow the growth of the deficit,’ and the lop-sided Democrat Legislature has thus far been unwilling to seriously confront this problem.

We are running out of time and we must act aggressively and decisively to change direction to save what is left of economic security for the taxpaying families we represent.

If you are diagnosed with terminal cancer, you can’t settle for slowing the growth; you must get rid of the cancer.

We have had several options to deal with this problem but have not had the political back bone to do it. It is clear that the trend is devastating.

The 2011 CAFR will be worse than 2010 and so on until we are unable to act.

Taxpayers must hold the 2012 legislature’s feet to the fire and be directly involved in next November’s election to remove those elected officials unwilling or unable to stop this fiscal cancer.

Updated News Items 10-22-2011

As printed in the Waialae-Kahlala #3 Neighborhood Board Report from Senator Sam Slom, October 20, 2011.

State Budget in Dire Straits

A Capitol panel on October 11, sponsored by the House Republicans, with Sheila Weinberg of the Chicago Institute for Truth in Accounting, State Budget Director Kal Young, former Council of Revenues Chair, Paul Brewbaker and Maui Chamber of Commerce President Pamel Tumpap spoke on various issues and concerns regarding the State Budget.

If you thought Hawaiiʼs spending and debt crisis is bad; itʼs worse than you thought. Weinbergʼs organization identified Hawaii as a “sinkhole” state and ranked Hawaii 47th worst in the Nation. Mr. Young stated that the State Employee Retirement System (ERS) and the Hawaii Employee-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund (EUTF) are “problematic, unfunded obligations”.

Budget impacts from education and human services will put more burden on the state and the taxpayers.

The Senate Republican caucus will be refining its alternate state budget in the coming months and during the 2012 session.

Lawsuits Filed after Redistricting

The Hawaii State Reapportionment Commission is being sued after the final redistricting plans finalized last month. The Reapportionment Commission also voted on a revision to State Senate staggered terms which is based on a formula based on population. For the 8th district the State Senate term will be 4 years after 2012.

Despite the apparent finality of the commissionʼs redistricting work, two lawsuits have been filed against the Reapportionment Commission on the issues of residency and the constitutionality of its decision. Basically some politicians and people on the Big Island want another senatorial district.

Redistricting maps were redrawn last month to extract some but not all military populations residing in the state. The U.S. Census Bureau includes all of the military in the official census count. Most of the states count their military, prison and student populations during the redistricting process.

Outspoken critics who opposed counting everyone continually forced the issue eventually getting the council to reconsider their original 8 to 1 vote to include the entire population and go with one of 3 population extraction plans (Extraction A). The opponents cited a 1992 state constitutional amendment as the basis for their opposition in hopes of getting a new Senate district for the Big Island. With extraction A, that did not happen.

Several individuals stated that the legislature needs to define what a “permanent resident” is in order to have clarity on the issue at the next reapportionment 10 years from now. Legislation to correct some of the issues brought up during the reapportionment process may be drafted for the upcoming session.

Current redistricting plans can be viewed on the commissionʼs website at: http://hawaii.gov/elections/reapportionment/

Hawaii State Legislature Website Gets a Major Makeover

The Hawaii State Legislatureʼs website at www.capitol.hawaii.gov is getting a major makeover this weekend in an attempt to make the site easier to use and packed with more features.

Among some of the new major features will be the ability to do just about everything from the home page. Users will be able to get bill status, search by keyword, get hearing notices by date, pick up the order of the day, search the Hawaii Revised Statutes, submit testimony, and s e t up personalized bill tracking with notes and custom bill lists all from links on the home page. Users will be able to set up their own accounts and keep their legislative information (like custom bill lists) online. Frequent testifiers will not have to enter basic information every time they send in new testimony with a user login. The options, links and information are plentiful complete with an archive (like before) that goes back to 1999.

Get Together October 22

See you next Saturday October 22, starting at 10:00 am. Maunalua Bay, Hawaii Kai.