Letters: Complete plans to move Farrington Highway; Why can’t Hawaii open up vaccinations to all?; Personal gun ownership protects against tyranny

I have lived in Waianae since 1971 and observed waves undermining Farrington Highway at Makaha Beach, while pilings and large rocks placed to protect it have been ripped out by waves and damaged nearby reefs.

When wave erosion took down the original bathhouse on the makai side of Farrington, the city had to build the new bathhouse, parking lot and canoe hale on the mauka side. So the state highway now splits the city park in half, endangering pedestrians.

Farrington Highway follows former railroad tracks across the beach. Before the rail and road, winter northwest swells would deposit sand 100 yards mauka of the road. When the road is inevitably washed out due to the severe storms and sea-level rise of climate change, it will cut off communities past Keaau Beach Park, including federal bases at Makua and Kaena Point.

The 1998 Makaha Beach Master Plan authors recommended moving the highway mauka. City and state officials agreed to work on this solution.

I ask them to please use the funding already allotted to complete the feasibility study for the Makaha Master Plan.

Robert “Bunky” Bakutis

Waianae

Why can’t Hawaii open up vaccinations to all?

Beginning today, New York will open COVID-19 vaccines to everyone over 30. Many other states are now at 16-18 and above. This list includes Alaska, Arizona, Utah, Mississippi and Georgia, and is growing.

What’s up with Hawaii, a relatively small state, being still stuck at 60? The president has announced a goal of everyone over 18 being vaccinated by the end of April.

Since it can’t be the population numbers, what is it?

William E. Conti

Waikiki

Legislators find ways to avoid helping poor

Our state lawmakers are looking to deny tax breaks on unemployment payments, citing federal guidelines which prohibits states from using the federal aid to fill budget shortfalls created by tax cuts (“Bill exempting jobless benefits from state taxes hits a snag,” Star-Advertiser, March 25).

Rather than looking for reasons to approve the tax break, our legislators are looking for reasons to tax the unemployed. Gov. David Ige said that the state’s intention was always to tax unemployment benefits.

In addition, the state lowered general assistance payments to the poor from $388 per month to $260 per month. The state has given out raises to government and union workers at a time when Hawaii has the highest unemployment rate in the country. Where did the furloughs go?

And now, the Legislature is looking to give itself a 10% raise. What happened to “share the pain?” and, “we’re all in this together?” Something is terribly wrong with this picture. Or is it just me?

Bert Oshiro

Hawaii Kai

Housing subsidies should target lower incomes

I am in favor of government support for low-income housing.

Subsidies for studio apartments renting for $2,361 inflate the low end of the rental market and will inflict further distress on Oahu’s poor (“Developers readying affordable apartment projects on Oahu,” Star-Advertiser, March 28).

Focusing on the median income of $88,150 for a single person is bad policy and ignores the real needs of the poor. The city should reserve cash subsidies for developments aimed at those individuals and families with lower incomes.

John Keiser

Makiki

Prince Kuhio ignored on his annual holiday

I find it very irresponsible of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the main information source for Hawaii, to not make mention of Prince Jonah Kuhio Day last week. All state and county offices were on holiday to celebrate Prince Kuhio. Does anyone at the Star-Advertiser even know who Prince Kuhio is?

Perhaps someone should find out and inform the public, many of whom were on holiday because of him, so they know why we celebrate Prince Kuhio.

Clifford Murakami

Kailua

FACE ignores tax math about REIT revenues

Evelyn Hao of FACE used partial public information to satisfy a preconceived notion in opposing real estate investment trusts (“Tax form change would clarify amount of REIT deductions,” Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, March 22).

Hao said adding a corporate income tax to REITs would generate $64 million and compared that to figures I provided the newspaper that doing so “might produce $2.2 million in revenue the first year and maybe only $10 million thereafter.”

However, Hao failed to note that my source for these figures is the Department of Taxation.

This isn’t about having two different opinions based on similar data. FACE’s estimate has no basis in fact, while my figures came from the government entity that reviews income tax returns.

Hao said to “do the math” to get an answer that’s “precise and true.”

DOTAX has already done the math and came up with an answer that FACE doesn’t like and won’t accept.

Gladys Quinto Marrone

Executive director, Nareit Hawaii

Personal gun ownership protects against tyranny

Those who oppose the Second Amendment do not truly understand why our forefathers demanded this be part of our governance. History has shown numerous times that we need to protect ourselves from not just criminals, but those who forget our government of the people. And, not only does it allow law-abiding citizens to enjoy certain unalienable rights, including protecting themselves and their property, along with the pursuit of happiness, it also prevents an overbearing and unjust government from becoming tyrannical, again.

Richard Borreca said that “more guns out there mean more killing” (“Mass shootings on mainland bring Hawaii’s stringent gun laws into sharper focus,” Star-Advertiser, On Politics, March 28). Using this form of logic, we also should apply his reasoning to cars, boats and people, because those also “kill” people.

This is exactly why we need the Second Amendment in place, because of this illogical notion that people start to believe.

Don Clark

Aiea

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