HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 1067.005 1996-1998
LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM HENRY A.ROSS, PO BOX 99 KAPAAU, 96755
CELL PHONE: (808) 937-7739
Mr Editor, I did not realize this would become that long, please place it in 2 in nts as a
"viewpoint and battle cry". Thank you very much for your kind help
.
74,
POLITICIANS AND OUR MONEY: WATCH OUT
I need to talk about our money and how we are finagled out of it by our politicians. It is
now worse than it has ever been. Under the guise of taking good care of us, many of our
elected officials are out to fatten their own pockets and secure their jobs, while fighting off
the few that really have our interest at heart. This is about raw politics, with baking of the
laws by our own government.
Although much more is going on than what 1 dish up here, 1 call your attention, dear
public, to a few very recent, mostly still ongoing examples, where your interests are very
much at stake and being trampled.
That something can be done against this pilferage and projects with kick-backs to the
politicians who are staging all this is shown in a recent occurrence where Mr Kalani Schutte,
who is now Deputy Finance Director in charge of property taxes, proposed to the County
Council by resolution to credit (read give a present of) $41, 000 to "Oceanside 1250" (con-
nected to Japan Airlines) in Kona. It was ridiculously illegal but would have gone through if I
had not 3 times gone to the Council to speak and provide documentation, and it appears to
be dead, but still requires a close watch. That was our money that was almost given away.
I also discovered while doing this that the County did not have its original copy of a
contract called "Development Agreement" with Oceanside 1250, worth about $20,000,000 in
RECENED "
/ rime.----- ~y Comm. No. /067.0-5-
i -pun-ty Council File No. F / N
Ref. To:Pin-iir=te -
Ref. Date 1- 57 - 99
my estimation. The 2 originals both went to the developer and could then not be found, (may-
be because both were safely stored in Tokyo), after weeks we finally got a certified copy out
of the Bureau of Conveyancies that will do in Court if we ever have to enforce the
Developer's obligations.
If you thought that was a bad one, think again! While looking into the Japan Airlines
affair about which the papers reported one or more visits by Mayor Yamashiro to Tokyo, I
came across another give-away of our tax money. Prudential Timber started earlier than the
Oji Paper matter came up as an idea strongly supported by the Mayor, but defeated with the
help of open-eyed opponents, who know from other states where chip tree dramas were
suffered with soil depletion and watertable damages. They informed the public accordingly.
Prudential Timber had been given a tax present by our lay County Tax Review Board
in 1997 of $ 327,000 for land that lay fallow (unused) leased from Bishop Estate, altogether
about 25,000 acres in Hamakua. As usual the people in Hamakua are kept happy with the
promise of jobs, an easy trick of all developers, supported by our politicians, that rarely pans
out. There is not a shred of solid documentation why they got that tax break in the property
tax department. The foul decision of the Tax Review Board could have been appealed to
State Tax Court by the County and would have been won. It did not happen. This year we
saw a repeat of Prudential Timber of a present in property tax on the same land of $214,000
and I wrote 3 letters to the County Council with all the proof necessary to show that our own
property tax law was violated and instead replaced by Corporation Counsel by a Maryland
law (where they do things differently and none of our business).The tax board accepted all
this nonsense and you may have read the result from the jubilant "PRU-TIMBER" in the local
papers.
I warned the Council on 17 November 1998 that an appeal of this nonsensical deci-
sion was possible until 13 December 1998, but strangely my letters, although clockstamped
as received, disappeared and as I showed: Corporation Counsel stated that we would look
silly if the County would appeal its own tax board (then why do we have a state law for such
appeals?). The case was not appealed and so Pru-Timber was $541,000 richer in two years
for doing literally "NOTHING" with the land and at the same time has set a kind of precedent
for the next 25 years. Please try to remember how many projects the County could not fund
this year to benefit of the public, for lack of funds, where half a million would be a godsend.
One asks why Pru-Timber? Apart from direct kick backs to politicians that we are not
yet aware of that project would of course set a trend, like for the upcoming Oji-Timber, a pet
project of the Mayor, and now for the same tree chip projects that have been announced for
Puna. Before we know it, this Island is going to be the biggest chip producer of the world,
without any benefit to the public except a few floor-sweeping and janitor jobs, while the land
is being ruined and depleted till even chip trees won't grow there anymore, the land that
could have served many farmers and aspirant farmers to make a decent living by growing
the vegetables, fruit and flowers for our own Hawaii market without the need for an irradiator.
Only 4% of this island's soil is suitable for profitable agriculture, that is now being forever
ruined to fill the pockets of greedy outsiders and greedy and dumb elected politicians.
Now we have a new drama unfolding itself, that of the Mayor's future plans for this
island for which we have to borrow first $40,000,000, and when the Council did not swallow
that earlier this year, changed to $20,000,000 and now again up to $30,000,000. Is it neces-
sary? Some of these projects - yes - but those are thrown in to sweeten the unnecessary
ones. Our children will forever be paying of these follies in priciple and interest. Where is
3
that going to come from? Mostly from property taxes, the ONLY County real income. Who
pays for that? WE and our CHILDREN and our GRANDCHILDREN in perpetuity, for when
previous 'BOND ISSUES' become due the gap must be filled with new bond issues, a.s.o.
Because the County Charter requires public hearings for such bond issues, we have
just had one in Hilo on 22 December, where 4 or 5 people appeared because it was illegally
and improperly announced. In short nobody knew about it, and the subject was $20,000,000.
Because of that "eclatant success" we now just had a similar public hearing in Kona
on 30 December where the ante was raised to $30,000,000 and it was likewise improperly
announced because I am on the Council mailing list and did not get any announcements.
The reason why there were a lot of people in Kona is because Council members from Kona
and some others have worked very hard to do the announcing, where the Council failed.
These matters are now coming up in the Council on 5 and 6 January for a second
reading in Hilo. And if you care anything about our land, our aina, our heritage, our future
and that of your children and your pocket book you better show up and applaud when you
T hear what you like and vice versa. And try help to get the money back from Pru-Timber, it
was stolen from us, with the help of elected politicians and a dumb tax board, who should be
voted out next time and fired and censured or ousted immediately. There is yet a chance, but
it takes all of us to "chip" in by getting the chippers and their supporters out.
Henry Ross - Kohala