Question: I need to get the REAL ID license, but my current license (not gold star) has my married name on it and my birth certificate obviously doesn’t. I don’t have a passport. I can’t find my marriage license. Is a church certificate good enough?
Answer: No. The state of Hawaii has a strict list of acceptable connecting documents to prove legal name changes for the purposes of obtaining a federally compliant (“gold star”) Hawaii driver’s license or state ID. Any one of the following will suffice:
>> Court order for name change, adoption or divorce (legal name, date of birth and court seal are required).
>> Marriage certificate issued in the U.S. by the government.
>> Civil union certificate issued in the U.S. by the government.
>> Certified decree of name change from the Hawaii lieutenant governor’s office.
>> Naturalization certificate.
If you were married in Hawaii, you can order a certified copy of your marriage certificate at vitrec.ehawaii.gov/ vitalrecords/.
As you know, initial applicants for a REAL ID- compliant driver’s license or state ID must prove their lawful U.S. presence, legal name, date of birth, Social Security number and Hawaii principal residence. For acceptable documents in each category, see 808ne.ws/doc.
Note: A hard-copy document proving Social Security number is no longer required, as that can be verified electronically.
Q: The U.S. Senate just passed a bill establishing permanent daylight saving time in the U.S. If this bill becomes law, will Hawaii be forced to go on daylight saving time? Am I correct that it would mean that year-round, the sun would rise and set one hour later by Hawaii clock time?
A: No and no. The Sunshine Protection Act of 2021, S.623, would make daylight saving time “the new, permanent standard time, effective Nov. 5, 2023.” However, it wouldn’t force regions that don’t currently observe daylight saving time to adopt it. “States with areas exempt from daylight saving time may choose the standard time for those areas,” it says.
Hawaii, most of Arizona, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands do not observe daylight saving time.
Q: There is a bill in Congress that will eliminate the time shifting between daylight and standard times on the mainland. If this bill becomes law, will the time difference between Hawaii and the East Coast be permanently set at six hours or five hours?
A: Six hours. The East Coast is six hours later once it “springs ahead” to daylight saving time in March and five hours later when it “falls back” to standard time in November. The time zones are Eastern Daylight Time and Eastern Standard Time.
Q: Will I lose my home exemption if I rent out part of my home but also still live there? This is not an ADU situation. I plan to rent out part of the main house while also living there.
A: No. “If you are renting a room or a portion of your property and still residing in the property as your principal residence, you are still eligible to receive the home exemption,” which lowers the property tax burden for owner- occupants, the Real Property Assessment Division of Honolulu County’s Department of Budget and Fiscal Services says on its website.
To inform the division that you are renting out part of your home, file a Change of Status application Form BFS-RP-P-43 on or before Sept. 30, it says.
You would not be eligible for the home exemption if you vacated the property and rented out the entire residence.
Auwe
I don’t understand why they are repainting the lane markings on Kahekili Highway, when the road needs to be repaved, instead of just patching all the potholes continuously. — K.M.
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
