Tax hike would stifle economic diversity

Have we lost our common sense? The state Senate approves a 16% tax on individuals earning more than $200,000 a year, up from the current rate of 11% (“Hawaii Senate approves highest income tax in U.S. for those making more than $200K,” Star-Advertiser, March 9).

We are constantly told, and most would agree, that it would be in Hawaii’s best interest to have a more diverse economy and not depend entirely on tourism. Our leaders have talked about making Hawaii a hub for technology, farming and scientific research, along with their desire to attract high-paid remote workers to paradise.

Getting the most skilled doctors, deep-thinking scientists, the brightest engineers, those risk- taking entrepreneurs and many others with skills that Hawaii would require for a diverse economy is going to be a real challenge when you’re known as the state with the highest income tax.

I look forward to each senator who voted to make Hawaii the highest-tax state in the nation, posting their shrewd thinking on their websites so we might all share in the bounty of their wisdom.

Phil Winter

Kihei

Tax hike would drive away doctors

Has anyone considered the impact of the new proposed increased tax structure passed by the Hawaii Senate on physicians and dentists? Why would a newly graduated resident-trained physician — with several hundred thousand dollars in debt, housing and cost of living high, insurance reimbursements low, malpractice insurance high, and now the highest proposed tax rate in the nation to that very group — ever come to Hawaii?

If they do come, why work those extra nights and weekends or take emergency backup call at the hospital? That extra income is just going to be taken away by taxes. How about our large number of older physicians near retirement? This may just push them to quit practicing.

Honolulu has been identified as second in urban areas in the nation with a shortage of physicians.

When you have difficulty seeing a dentist, physician or a specialist in the future, or wait hours in the ER for a specialist to see you, you can thank our short-sighted Legislature for the evergrowing shortage of physicians.

Gary R. Johnson, D.V.M., D.O.

Kaneohe

Republicans trying to deny right to vote

As American citizens, we’re told that we have the right to vote in state and federal elections, and this right to vote is embedded in our Constitution.

Really? Currently, a certain political party’s legal efforts appear to be suppressing the vote or discouraging citizens from voting. Let every vote be counted!

Republicans continue to erode this right by passing state legislation that restricts the voting rights of a targeted portion of their citizenry. Why?

Or is it the “right” to win elections, as one attorney argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, that allows suppression by the Republican Party?

This is wrong: Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.

Gilbert Horita

Makiki

Kauai police chief should resign

Kauai Police Chief Todd Raybuck’s disparagement of Japanese Americans is shocking, incredulous and unacceptable, especially in a multicultural society like Kauai (“Kauai police chief violated bias policy by mocking Asians, report says,” Star-Advertiser, March 10).

It is yet another example of the wave of Trump-inspired, anti-Asian rhetoric and assaults sweeping the country.

Japanese were among the first immigrants to settle on Kauai. My great-grandparents arrived on the first boatload of Japanese contract workers in 1885 and worked on the Kilauea Sugar Plantation. My grandfather ran the Lihue dispensary. My parents were teachers at Waimea High School.

They didn’t spend their lives helping to build a sensitive, caring and accepting island community only to have their physical appearance, speech and culture mocked and denigrated by a prominent public official. Raybuck should resign.

Ken Kashiwahara

Millbrae, Calif.

Regular stream cleanups needed

My now-deceased mother lived in Haleiwa near the Helemano and Opaeula streams for 60 years. She lived through four floods, the last one being the December 2008 flood in which five feet of muddy water entered her home.

The muddy cleanups were brutal and costly. She knew that the clogged streams were the major causes, and every year before the rainy season she used to phone the city and/or state to convince them to dredge and remove debris from the streams, especially by the Long Bridge on Haleiwa Road, where the bulk of the stream water empties into Kaiaka Bay.

The dredging seemed to have mitigated the rising of the streams and the flooding. But it should not take phone calls to the city and state to have the streams, rivers and gulches near flood-prone areas to be cleaned and dredged regularly. Will it take petitions or class-action lawsuits to have the city and state take this seriously?

Joy Nagata

Mililani

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