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Retaining wall will
not fail, DOT says

Question: When using the School Street onramp to the Lunalilo Freeway going Ewa, I've noticed that the retaining wall is cracking and slowly being pushed over. Furthermore, each time we have heavy rains, School Street floods, sending mud down onto the freeway, making conditions dangerous. Is there any plan to place a culvert above the freeway along School Street to prevent this problem, and also to repair the wall?

Answer: The state Department of Transportation has been monitoring that retaining wall for "a couple of years," said spokesman Scott Ishikawa, but inspectors believe "the wall is nowhere near the point where it will fail."

Unfortunately, he said, there is no easy fix in sight and any substantial repairs will be costly.

"We will be looking into programming the investigation and work for this problem (into the budget), but as funds are tight we would have to do some intensive budget juggling," Ishikawa said.

Inspectors will continue to monitor the movement of the wall and "we will take action, emergency or otherwise, before it gets to that point" of collapse.

Meanwhile, he said the Department of Transportation's hydraulics staff was notified about the flooding on School Street, noting yours was the first complaint received about flooding there affecting the freeway.

Q: I am a seasonal hire for the state. Why can't the state deduct Social Security taxes from my paycheck? Instead, it deducts money and puts it into a retirement fund. I need to accumulate Social Security credits.

A: Basically, this is a way for the state to save money while allowing employees like you to contribute to a retirement plan.

The state considers this a "win-win situation," said Cynthia Akiyoshi, personnel management specialist with the state Department of Human Resources.

She pointed to a change in the federal law several years ago that allowed the states to be exempt from deducting Social Security taxes for part-time, temporary and seasonal employees.

The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 amended the Internal Revenue Code's Section 3121 to say that such state employees are exempt from the Social Security tax if they are provided a comparable retirement system. The result was the 3121 Plan.

For part-time, temporary or seasonal employees, money is deducted and placed into an "alternative deferred compensation retirement plan" (different from the plan for "regular" employees), Akiyoshi said.

When the federal changes were taking place, "the state was looking at creative ways to save money, too," she said. "So, when this plan was looked into, it was like a win-win situation, where the state could save money by not matching Social Security and employees could basically put away retirement savings into this plan and not pay Social Security."

Rather than wait to get Social Security payments at retirement, you get the money when your employment is terminated.

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