The road work will be painful, but it will be worth it

Let’s hear it for the work crews, working overnight for our convenience!

Complaints about potholes on the H-1 have been a constant for years. And now the rutted zone between Middle Street and Ward Avenue is going to get work at last. When the traffic cones go up this fall, for a projected one-year period, there will be complaints, but we, at least, want to applaud the start of these necessary repairs and hope they’re done right. If somebody has a proposal for fixing potholes without closing lanes, the mayor and governor surely will be all ears.

Delaying same-sex marriage here will be costly

Following the release of his economic-impact study last week, University of Hawaii professor Sumner La Croix said he wasn’t trying to influence policy. He just wanted to update his past report on how legalizing same-sex marriage would affect Hawaii.

Political and personal considerations likely will trump economics in decisions over whether to call a special session on the issue. Even so, the dollar figure is pretty startling.

Folding in all the potential wedding activity brings the estimate on additional spending in Hawaii’s economy to a high of $217 million between 2014 and 2016. General excise tax revenue from all that would go up by $10.2 million. That would more than cover the cost of a special session.

Hmm.