Enron shows need for finance reform

Martin Schram's column "Stop coddling corporate fat cats -- let them pay taxes" (Star-Bulletin, Jan. 23) was a straightforward expose of the underlying scandal that allows Enron and other multibillion-dollar businesses to escape taxes, while ordinary Americans and small businesses foot the bill for the war on terrorism and other government programs.

Schram rightly credits Bob McIntyre's Citizens for Tax Justice with the legwork that brought this perversion of democracy to light.

However, an equal, if not greater, outrage is detailed in the group's current newsletter. Since 1990, corporations in the energy and automobile industries have contributed more than $200 million to political candidates, parties and PACs. In exchange, these industries have received tax breaks of more than $25 billion.

Even more outrageous is that many of Congress' own fat cats are pushing legislation to eliminate the minimum income tax for corporations.

This abuse of the system screams out for campaign finance reform and public financing of elections.

Richard Weigel

Traffic cam program indifferent to safety

It should be obvious that the Department of Transportation's goal of improving road safety cannot be properly served by a private company whose goal is profit.

Case in point: A few days ago at 6pm, one of the new laser photo vans was parked on the town-bound (downhill) side of the Likelike Highway. When HPD monitors this road, they park near the bottom, just before the first traffic light, where speeders might lose control during a sudden slowdown. This improves safety.

Recently, the photo-ticket van was parked nearly 2 miles above an intersection on the longest straight portion of a divided highway where there is about a half-mile of visibility, no crossing streets, no pedestrians, and no possibility of a head-on collision. I'd bet there has never been an accident since the highway was built.

The van was parked there for one reason: because that spot has the steepest grade. This does not improve road safety, it generates revenue.

Donna L. Ching

[Quotables] "It's time for us to speak up and let our legislators know that the vocal opposition that has dominated the media in recent weeks does not represent everyone in Hawaii." Carol Tsai Partner in Holomua Hawaii, a coalition of local and mainland interests that supports the development of two casinos on Oahu. Holomua Hawaii said it has gathered more than 25,000 signatures in three weeks from Oahu residents who support gambling here. -- "My record is clean. I'm not a speeder and I'm not a racer. I just feel like I wasn't getting a fair break." Cindy Lee Kaimuki resident, speaking at an American Civil Liberties Union forum on traffic photo citations. Lee said she was cited Jan. 7 for driving 8 mph over the speed limit while she was on her way home from a funeral with her mother.

Sprinklers should be off when it's pouring

The Department of Transportation seems to think that rain water isn't good enough for its plants. Why else would it be blasting the sprinklers along the freeway at night on Jan. 28 in Kaimuki while it was pouring rain and had been pouring rain for hours? The ground was already saturated, so the water was just running off.

The main thing this was doing was making the already hazardous driving conditions more hazardous.

City and County Parks and Recreation must be under the same impression because the following morning it was happily watering the big, grassy field at Sandy Beach. You have to wonder what goes through the mind of someone who has to slog through wet, soggy grass to get to the faucet to turn on the sprinklers.

The rest of us are told constantly "E malama i ka wai." Shouldn't that apply to the government as well? Just because it happens to be plentiful at the moment, it's still a waste of a precious resource.

Scott Rowland
Waimanalo

Let HMSA handle its own rate structure

I have been an HMSA member for many years and am grateful for the reliable coverage it provides. HMSA has proved that it is financially responsible and community minded.

I am at a loss as to why the state Legislature would want to pass a law that would give the insurance commissioner the power to regulate the rates of health plans.

HMSA is doing something right if it is still strong after 60-plus years. Other health insurance companies have come to Hawaii and set their rates lower than HMSA's. Time and again we've seen them fail because the premiums are not adequate to pay claims. Then the state has to come in and clean up the mess at the taxpayers' expense.

Health care is expensive. We all know that. Allowing the insurance commissioner to set health care premiums will be disastrous. It will not only jeopardize HMSA's ability to continue to provide coverage at levels we are accustomed to, but it will also drive away our doctors when reimbursements are forced lower.

Legislators, please leave rate-setting to those who have been doing it successfully for decades.

Rachele Caires

Special ed students also affected by cuts

Recent articles on Department of Education budget cuts note that special education has been spared. This is not true.

Most special education students spend at least some of their day in regular education classes. Cuts to those programs and services affects special education students, too. Further, these cuts contribute to an "us" versus "them" attitude as resentment grows over funding inequities.

Here's a suggestion for the DOE: Stop paying for medical services for Felix-class students. Return responsibility for payment to health insurers where it belongs, and where it rests for all other students. Put those millions of dollars saved back into general education.

Support general education programs and teachers with the same fervor that you bring to special education and watch all students reap the benefits.

Mary Mumper

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