With 80,000 rooms at a reported $305 average daily rate per room, for 365 days, the total comes to almost $9 billion in annual revenue for Hawaii’s hotel industry.

Yet the industry still comes to the Legislature every year with hat in hand, begging for another $50-$60 million from us, the taxpayers, to pay for its advertising. And since it also carries campaign donations to the Legislature, it always gets what it wants.

The industry’s revenue is more than half of the entire state budget.

Surely the hotel industry can manage to part with less than two-thirds of 1% of that $8.9 billion to pay for its own advertising.

Now the state has been challenged over an advertising contract, which means millions more will be sucked from the taxpayers (“Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau files protest over tourism contract award,” Star- Advertiser, June 22).

Most residents agree that the last thing this state needs is more tourists. Just cut this boondoggle already.

Michael Richards

Kaneohe

Add gray bins to reduce improper blue bin use

I just read the letter about teaching people to recycle correctly (“Teach the public how to recycle properly,” Star-Advertiser, June 21).

This is needed, but the real cause of so many nonrecyclables being put into the blue recycle bin just might be that the regular gray trash bins fill up too fast.

I don’t even know if you can request an extra trash bin or where to find the information to request one. Since 2008, the size of families has grown and so has the amount of trash.

I suggest a pilot project to give out extra gray bins in certain subdivisions, and find out if both bins are being used. Volunteers could count how many households are using two gray bins on every pickup for a two-month period, and to see if the nonrecyclables in the blue bins decrease. I would volunteer.

Sylvia Kalama

Waipahu

Investigate problems at new State Hospital

The new State Hospital is simply just another embarrassment warranting a criminal investigation for costly improprieties, unwarranted delays and the misuse of public funds, compromising the safety of the community (“New Hawaii State Hospital faces more delays,” Star-Advertiser, May 25).

It has been more than a year since the facility was turned over to the state Department of Health. The amazing excuse cited by the DOH for the delays was ongoing repairs for a brand-new 144-bed psychiatric facility.

Regardless of the ridiculous implications, a thorough investigation is warranted as taxpayers need to know if this is simply another incident of inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars.

Patrick N. Custino

Kaneohe

Hawaii won’t replace Dems with Republicans

I would like to follow up to several letters suggesting that Hawaii residents desert the Democratic Party and vote for Republicans.

Hawaii has a diversified populace. The white supremacist bent of mainland Republicans does not sit well here. We are islands populated by minorities — all of us. And we live side by side in relative harmony.

Not so Republicans. From “The Great Replacement Theory” to “The Chinese Pandemic,” Republicans are busy sowing racial hatreds daily. Until this party purges itself of its racist stain, people who live as ohana — as we do in Hawaii — cannot and will not vote for this party.

Sidney Goldstein

Chinatown

Questions raised about capabilities of Red Hill

The reported need for extensive repairs before the Red Hill fuel storage tanks can be drained makes one wonder about what use these tanks have been to the U.S. military for all these years (“Repairs before defueling Red Hill facility might cost $100 million,” Star-Advertiser, June 21).

If the U.S. was threatened in the Pacific region by a foreign power requiring the immediate mobilization of military assets here in Hawaii, would our nation’s military have to invest $100 million and more than a year of time to gain access to the Red Hill fuel reserves?

How does storage of jet fuel, in a facility where it is not accessible, advance the readiness of our nation’s defenses?

Something smells funny here, and it’s not just jet fuel!

Dale Jensen

Kailua

Gas tax holiday savings would be insignificant

President Joe Biden wants to suspend the federal gas tax of 18 cents per gallon (“Biden calls for 3-month suspension of gas and diesel taxes,” Star-Advertiser, Top News, June 22).

If the average fill-up per car is 15 gallons, that’s a saving of $2.70 on about $82 for every fill-up at $5.50 per gallon.

You can save more money by skipping your daily stop at Starbucks. Get real. It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a guy who just had his arm cut off in an accident.

Clifford Toyama

Moanalua

Seagliders could interact with migrating whales

The seaglider story was fascinating (“All-electric seaglider targeting Hawaii takeoff,” Star-Advertiser, June 20)! Thank you, Allison Schaefers. I love news stories about engineering innovation — very cool.

I’ve flown interisland for my contracting business many times in small planes at low altitudes and have observed a lot of whales breaching in winter.

Has anyone thought about the possibility of whale/aircraft encounters? I can’t tell you how many times we have had close calls with whales breaching while fishing in a small, moving boat. This is not Florida. There are lots of whales here.

Francis Tirado

Kaneohe

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