City needs its own version of Prop 13
California passed Proposition 13 in 1978, and it has proved successful. There is a very good research article on this "acquisition value" method of taxing property that our City Council members should peruse at:
www.caltax.org/research/prop13/prop13.htm
I quote from the above noted article: "An acquisition-value standard has advantages for taxpayers and for government. This system is more equitable as it links tax liability to ability to pay more directly than a market-value system. It is also more predictable for taxpayers, removes much of the problem of subjective assessments, and protects homeowners against prohibitive property tax increases during periods of rising values."
I suggest Hawaii consider this method of property tax assessment.
James Day
Honolulu
Democrats vote 'no' to fair property taxes
Irony alert: A group called Democrats for Property Tax Fairness recently testified to the Honolulu Charter Commission that the voters shouldn't be allowed to vote on a measure to stop the unfair property tax increases foisted on us by the Democrats running the City Council. And the Democrats running the Charter Commission unanimously agreed with them.
To recap: Democrats who don't believe in democracy voted to keep voters from voting, because they don't believe taxpayers can be trusted with taxes. Yup, sounds like Hawaii politics to me.
Jim Henshaw
Kailua
Honolulu can't afford Mayor Hannemann
Mufi Hannemann campaigned for mayor on the promise to take care of basic city services that had been neglected by the previous mayor. Unfortunately, after being elected, he lobbied state legislators to increase the state excise tax from 4 percent to 4.5 percent to pay for the initial start-up cost of a transit system Further increases in the excise tax will be required to complete the project and the on-going operation costs.
Now, this mayor wants our city to have a reserve of $50 million by greatly increasing income through property taxes, on top of the increases of various licensing and service fees.
After receiving increasing complaints from the taxpayers, Mayor Hannemann proposed increasing the property tax credit, from $200 to $300 for each homeowner. Such an offer still financially hurts the majority of our people, especially we senior retirees on fixed incomes who have lived in our homes in excess of 40 years with no intent of selling, intending to leave it to our children.
Hopefully, for the good of our city, Mayor Hannemann will be a one-term mayor.
Wilbert W. W. Wong Sr.
Kaneohe
Lingle's energy plan should go nuclear
I believe with her recent alternative energy proposal ("Lingle energy plan aims to reduce isle oil dependency,"
Star-Bulletin, Jan. 13), the governor is missing an important opportunity to propose a solution to Oahu's energy crisis and increasingly expensive dependency on imported oil.
The answer is nuclear power. Nuclear power has advanced far from the ugly cooling towers and nuclear meltdown fears of the '60s and '70s. Modern nuclear power plants (mostly European designed) are small, efficient, extremely safe and discreet. They provide cheap, steady sources of electricity without causing harmful greenhouse emissions.
True, storing the spent nuclear fuel is still an environmental liability, but not as much as continuing to import and burn foreign oil in the face of rising prices caused by "peak oil" (the theory that oil is only going to get increasingly hard to find) and geo-political instability.
It is not unforeseeable the entire world will someday turn to nuclear power as the most efficient alternative to exhausted fossil fuels (China, for instance, is planning dozens of new reactors in the next decade).
Because of the stigma attached to nuclear power, it will take enormous political courage and an extremely charismatic leader to overcome the fears and prejudice that come with the mere mention of the word nuclear, but with a new energy initiative, this governor has a golden opportunity to set Hawaii on the path to clean, cheap power for generations to come.
Peter Lee
Honolulu
Have modified mufflers deafened the police?
I want to scream even though it won't do any good. People in authority are either my age and can't hear or younger and enjoy the noise. It's time to end the terror of modified mufflers.
I'm old, but I can still hear these mufflers. That is a real problem when in the middle of the night muffler noise reverberates throughout the neighborhood or signals a race between youngsters bent on demonstrating they can be both fastest and loudest.
The only good thing about modified mufflers is that some neighborhood prowlers have them on their vehicles. You hear them roam the streets searching for their next break-in victim, but this does not do much good as the police must be my age and they can't hear!
As I read them, these sentences seem almost funny. But then again, it's not 3 in the morning. Will anybody do something? At least send me autographed ear plugs, signed by the users, courtesy of the modified muffler supplier/installer profiting from the pleasure and torture they illegally inflict on the public.
Leo Hura
Honolulu
Bush's tactics should bother governor
Linda Lingle, in the cute reports about her travels abroad,
writes from the Philippines, reporting that she discussed "the importance of good governance and how decisions made by government should be fair and transparent."
Is she trying to shed her Republican cloak? It reminded me of her secret trip to Baghdad and her clandestine meeting with convicted felon Ahmad Chalabi; her religious trip to Israel; and her trips to the mainland to raise money and to support President Bush, who has admitted secretly wiretapping Americans, among other questionable acts.
Doesn't it bother her that the ruling party in America is the most unfair, opaque and secretive government we've had in our lifetime?
Keith Haugen
Honolulu