Several articles in this space have been about features in Governor Ige’s emergency proclamations. We are now on the tenth one and counting, which makes us wonder about the 60-day limit written into the emergency powers statutes (see HRS section … Read More
While everyone’s attention is focused on COVID-19 and racially charged police brutality, we should also pay some attention to major happenings here at home. One of them is the venerable Aloha Stadium, former home to the Aloha Bowl and now … Read More
This week we’ll look at another general excise tax exemption that the State Auditor has put under the microscope in Report No. 20-05. It affects the construction industry, and the price tag the Auditor put on it, based on 2018 … Read More
You may remember back in the 1992 U.S. Presidential campaign, independent businessman and candidate Ross Perot argued, on live TV: “We have got to stop sending jobs overseas. It’s pretty simple: If … you can move your factory South of … Read More
The Hawaii Supreme Court scheduled oral argument for League of Women Voters v. State, a case that challenges the familiar and frustrating legislative tactic known as “gut and replace.” The documents in this case can be seen here. Argument is … Read More
Our Legislature will be reopening soon, and some lawmakers are undoubtedly thinking of ways to make our budget balance because the grim reality is that much of our economic engine has ground to a halt and is no longer spinning … Read More
This week our Legislature will be recessing after working on one of its important tasks: figuring out how to spend $1 billion of federal money that is being made available to Hawaii under the CARES Act. This federal money is … Read More
During this period of emergency and with our State facing revenue shortfalls of Brobdingnagian proportions, the State Auditor has been busy at work trying to find options for legislators to consider for getting the state budget back on track. In … Read More
Previously in this space, we spoke of various laws that were suspended by the Governor’s emergency proclamations. In a press release on March 17, 2020, entitled “Democracy Still Matters in Time of Pandemic,” the watchdog group Common Cause Hawaii pointed … Read More
In an article in this space just a couple of weeks ago, we growled and grumbled about the possibility that our Governor, having already suspended laws and chapters in the Hawaii Revised Statutes in a listing seventeen pages long, would … Read More