Newswatch

By Star-Bulletin Staff

Saturday, May 2, 1998

---

Excise tax impasse: Who'll blink first?

Although Friday night's internal midnight deadline for reaching agreements was missed, formal House-Senate negotiations on key fiscal issues are again moving -- but slowly.

The talks were kept alive by House Speaker Joe Souki (D, Wailuku) and Senate President Norman Mizuguchi (D, Aiea). They left the door wide open for extending this year's legislative session at least two days -- to Thursday -- if agreements can be reached on the state budget and tax-relief plans.

"We're far apart, but only on a few big issues," Souki said. "If we can resolve those few big issues, then we'll close quickly."

The House and Senate are still at odds over whether a general excise tax hike should be linked to personal income tax reductions aimed at enticing business investments that would boost Hawaii's anemic economy. The House, backed by Gov. Ben Cayetano, favors the tax increase; the Senate doesn't.

Friday night, for the first time in three days, House and Senate conferees on the state budget and related financial measures returned to the bargaining table.

They concurred that they must first settle the supplemental budget for the current fiscal biennium, said House Finance Chairman Calvin Say (D, Palolo). After that is done, they will turn their attention to deciding if an increase in the excise tax needs to be part of any tax-relief plan, Say added.

Chamberlain heads list of judges

Actor and Hawaii resident Richard Chamberlain heads the list of eight celebrity judges who will choose the 1998 Miss Universe on May 12.

Joining Chamberlain at the pageant at the University of Hawaii's Stan Sheriff Center will befellow actors Maria Conchita Alonzo, who co-starred in "Colors" with Sean Penn; Shemar Moore, who portrays Malcom Winters on the CBS daytime drama "The Young & the Restless"; and international fashion designer Vivienne Tam.

Also on the celebrity panel are Elaine Farley, senior editor for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition; New York Post columnists Cindy Adams and Richard Johnson; and figure skater Elvis Strojko, winner of silver medals in the 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympics.

Arguably the most important judges, though, are the 10 local residents chosen to be the preliminary judges who will select on May 7 the 10 finalists from the 81 Miss Universe contestants. They include:

Elizabeth Lindsey, actor, a documentary filmmaker and former Miss Hawaii.
Cathy Foy, a former Miss Hawaii and a recording artist.
Kit Sampson, a pianist and leader of the group Sound Advice.
Ruth Ono, member of the Queen's Health Systems board of directors.
Sandra Arlene Sims, Circuit Court judge and a former city deputy corporation counsel.
Andy Chang, president of Pan Waikoloa Corp. and the Pan Waikiki Corp.
Robert G. Lees, secretary-general of the Pacific Basin Economic Council.
Alies Mehan, co-owner of Andy Mehan Inc.
Hans Strasser, chief executive officer of Handmark Marketing Corp.
Nora Meijide, entrepreneur and international investor.

The judges for the Miss Universe country-costume event -- a noncompetitive portion of the pageant -- are:

Lieutenant Gov. Mazie Hirono.
Hugh Yoshida, University of Hawaii athletic director.
Joan Bickson, human resource director for Budget Rent a Car.
John Brogan, senior vice president of ITT Sheraton Corp.
Claire Chao, Pacific regional vice president of Tiffany & Co.
Mitchell D'Olier, president and chief executive officer of Victoria Ward Ltd.
Dan Ishii, executive vice president of Uniden Hawaii Software Research Park Inc.
Seiji Naya, director, Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Peter Schall, managing director of the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
Patricia Tam, general manager of the Halekulani Hotel.

Governor can contract for prison

House and Senate conferees have agreed on a bill that gives the governor the authority to allow a private company to build a prison and lease it back to the state.

The bill did not have the support of conference committee member and Big Island Sen. Andy Levin, who had pushed for a Kau prison commission with the power to veto construction of a prison.

The House did not want to create the commission, and other Senate conferees deleted it from the bill so the measure would pass out of conference committee.

"We were looking for some mechanism that would give the community a chance to make a difference as the planning for a prison goes forward," Levin (D, Volcano) said.

"I would predict that this would result in more delays, as half the community or a good portion of the community resists to the nth degree having this imposed upon it."

Lap dancing promoter paroled

Carl Richie, the first and only man prosecuted in Hawaii for promoting prostitution through lap dancing, has received early parole.

"He was quite jubilant," Daphne Barbee-Wooten, his attorney, said Friday after a video parole hearing from a Texas prison where Richie was sent to serve a 10-year sentence.

But Richie, whose early release was supported by diverse voices -- including lawmakers, through concurrent resolutions -- will have to wait until the state has a "full load" of parolees before returning to Hawaii, Barbee-Wooten said.

The department can hold parolees for 60 days, and some in the Newton, Texas, prison where Richie has spent the last year have been waiting since March, she said.

She said Richie, who has served about 21/2 years, thanked the board and offered to talk to high school students after his release about life choices and the horrors of jail.

"He does feel like he's making a new beginning," she said. "He mentioned, 'Out of bad can come good.'"

Richie was convicted on Kauai in 1996 for promoting prostitution in the second degree, which carries a five-year term. It stemmed from a police sting in 1995 in which his lap dancers were hired to provide entertainment at a party.

Prosecutors argued that Richie's dancers engaged in sexual contact for a fee when they rubbed against clothed undercover officers.