Tax the rich to pay for schools, housing

The incessant chatter about how hard it is to find money to develop low-income housing is just that — chatter.

There are now those who want to tax any new low-income units some $5,000 to $9,000 per unit to pay for future needed schools (“BOE again rejects homebuilder fee,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 22). Insanity!

Fortunately, there’s an intriguing alternative suitable for Hawaii’s booming high-end developments: an annual luxury housing tax levied on new high-end condos and rentals, which would feed a self-sustaining fund dedicated to developing truly affordable housing (and any needed new schools).

Victor Meyers

Kailua

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Enact red-light cams to encourage safety

It is high time our legislators enact a red-light camera law. Lawmakers must no longer ignore the many lost lives, road rage and near misses.

The continued lack of consequence only encourages drivers to run red lights with impunity and teach future generations to do the same. Registered owners are morally and legally responsible for their vehicles. When provided with photo proof, if they can’t or refuse to identify the actual driver, then the owner is financially accountable.

To work, the government, not a vendor, must run the system and do more to ensure all vehicles have current tags. Every day I see multiple cars with expired tags and safety checks. No insurance too, I bet.

We must do better here or the system will not work and will further encourage people to not register their cars and continue running lights. It works in other states and in Europe. It’s time for Hawaii.

R. Ronnie Goo

Mililani

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Mexico will not cooperate with U.S.

President Donald Trump released details of another poorly thought-out executive order on dealing with illegal and undocumented aliens.

After insulting both the Mexican people and the Mexican president, Trump should have known he wouldn’t get much kokua from them. Mexico has now put the U.S. on notice that it will not cooperate with his deportations.

Most people don’t understand the function of a passport. A passport is a guarantee from one nation to another that if our citizens are allowed to enter your country, we will take them back if you don’t want them. If the deporting nation cannot prove that the deportees are a citizen of their home country, that country doesn’t have to take them back.

This happened after the fall of Saigon, when Vietnamese fled and wound up in the U.S. without documentation. Some became convicted criminals and Vietnam would not accept them upon deportation. The same thing happened with Cuba and the Mariel boatlift.

Creighton W. Goldsmith

Nuuanu

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Immigration rules should benefit all

Much of the current immigration sentiments are full of double standards.

Illegal Mexican immigrants have a lot of public support. However, fishermen of Asian descent are barred from disembarking fishing boats on American soil. And Filipino veterans of World War II were promised that they could come to the U.S. with their families but have been waiting for 77 years for that to actually happen.

Immigration amnesty cannot be for only the politically correct ethnic group. Either allow all ethnic immigrants to enter the U.S. without passports and documents, or enforce immigration laws for all. This is equality.

Scott Sato

Wahiawa

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Reduce rail stations, reduce rail cost

The planned Honolulu rail transit route will have too many stations.

Trains are good for carrying people long distances fast, but inefficient at short stop-and-start runs. Instead of the planned 21 stations, they should build only 13 — Kapolei, University of Hawaii at West Oahu, West Loch, Waipahu, Leeward Community College, Pearlridge, Aloha Stadium, Pearl Harbor/Hickam, airport, Middle Street, Kapalama, Downtown and Ala Moana.

Anyone wanting to go somewhere between stations would use coordinated buses, taxis, bicycles or feet.

This would also save money — perhaps enough so that the rail could run all the way from UH Manoa to the middle of Kapolei. Then we would have a truly useful system.

Scott Rowland

Waimanalo

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It’s a no-brainer: Fluoridation works

It is baffling that in 2017, our legislators would be so useless as to be unable to pass a long-needed measure such as fluoridation.

If experts submit decades’ worth of data and clear evidence to support fluoridation in public water, legislators shouldn’t need further testimony from the general public to pass a public health bill that would save our keikis’ teeth. Apparently state Rep. Della Au Belatti and other legislators were waiting for a “groundswell of support” and “individual advocates” to come forward (“Fluoridation measures fail to advance in Legislature,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 18).

Most of us are too busy struggling in Hawaii to make a living and raise our families to track, compose and submit testimony on every single “no brainer” measure that is clearly backed by good, long-term data. Lee Cataluna is right: Our legislators are truly ineffective.

Kate Bryant-Greenwood

Kaimuki

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Let parents provide fluoride to children

A recent comment suggested that parents give their children fluoride drops as opposed to dumping the chemical in our drinking water. That is exactly what I did, and my now 33-year-old son has never had a single cavity in his life. Prescribing drops could become part of a child’s medical checkups. It’s a simple solution that allows parents to control what is going into their children’s bodies.

It seems inevitable that some people will drink a lot of water, and others almost none at all. Adding fluoride to drinking water will not regulate an individual’s intake of fluoride and seems illogical at best.

Laura Myers

Kaneohe