Could you spend $1 trillion?

As our politicians bandy about $1 trillion, we should take a look at just how much $1 trillion really is.

If you spent $1,000 a day, it would take you about three years to spend a million dollars.

If you spent $1,000 a day, it would take you about 3,000 years to spend a billion dollars.

If you spent $1,000 a day, it would take you about 3 million years to spend a trillion dollars.

Looking at it another way; a trillion dollars is more than $33,000 for every person in the United States, based on a population of 300 million.

What happens to rail when lights go out?

How would another islandwide power outage affect the operation of Honolulu's proposed rail system?

Consider being suspended in an unlighted train on an overhead track above a darkened Kalihi. No lights, no air conditioning, unable to open the doors and no platform to step onto. Or perhaps, on the third floor of an unlighted station, unable to open the turnstiles and nowhere near your destination.

Hawaiian Electric might be able to boast that 50 percent of the passengers reached their destinations without interruption and that another 25 percent will be home by tomorrow morning, and only a few might be stuck on the train until “;sometime tomorrow evening,”; but will this be acceptable as a “;glitch in the system”;?

I think not. If an outage can shut down the Honolulu airport and render the highly touted Homeland Security operations a helpless scramble, passengers on the rail would be well advised to carry a blanket and a bottle of water - just in case.

Governor had right idea for North Shore

The governor should be applauded for her efforts to preserve the rural North Shore of Oahu (Star-Bulletin, Jan. 8). Nobody said the task would be easy or quickly accomplished.

While details are few, it seems the acquisition proposals would have preserved most of the undeveloped lands, allowed the condo owners to finally buy the fee simple interest and provided for another hotelier to buy the existing hotel operations.

Those who argue that the depressed economy overrides the need for long-range planning and preservation should know that the solution to slumping tourism is not more hotel rooms.

In the long run, preserving the natural beauty and low density of the North Shore is in everyone's interest. Kawela Bay and the rural North Shore are still worth fighting to preserve.

Superferry fulfills humanitarian needs

On the last day of 2008 I talked to a kamaaina named Harry Brown, who called to make a recommendation with respect to how we price vehicles designed for use by those who are severely handicapped. Harry has a son who is a quadriplegic and they go to Maui frequently to see family. Harry explained this really wasn't possible for his son until we started service to Maui with the Hawaii Superferry.

About an hour before I talked to Harry, I was approached by a doctor who said to me, “;You know, if we had a mass burn event on a neighbor island, for example a plane crash, the only way we would be able to both treat and move multiple victims to Oahu at the same time would be on the Hawaii Superferry. We need to start working on this.”;

The Maui flood earlier this year, to which we responded by moving the National Guard, reminds us that it is only a matter of time before another event will require the Alakai to provide humanitarian assistance or disaster relief to a neighbor island. During the power outage after Christmas, the Superferry continued to operate because the ship has the ability to supply power to its own shoreside support.

Why write now? Well, we know a lot more than we did nine months ago when we started regular operations. Plus, I think we are at an important point in time as we address the welfare of our citizens and our economy. I said at the outset that the people of this community would ultimately determine both the value and success of this new transportation capability. Some 200,000 people have traveled in less than a year of responsible service. Repeat ridership is more than 50 percent. We have worked hard to listen to and address each concern. And new ideas and feedback, like those above, are brought to us every day, to highlight how important this resource can be to our community.

Promote healthful diet, exercise at all levels

The Hawaii Dietetic Association applauds your recent editorial endorsing state and federal nutrition initiatives to encourage healthy eating and exercise, especially in school-age children. We also are heartened by Gov. Linda Lingle's support of such programs, and recognize the positive steps that the Department of Health's Healthy Hawaii Initiative has taken to promote policy change.

Hawaii's 300-plus registered dietitians are an essential resource in providing scientific evidence based nutrition information to support nutrition programs designed to address Hawaii's childhood obesity rise. We must also address the need for accurate and reliable nutrition counseling for the economically underprivileged, who have higher rates of diabetes, hypertension and other nutrition- related chronic diseases.

As you pointed out, we have an incoming locally grown president who gives us reason to hope that we can make positive change, even in the face of grave challenges. It will take change at all levels, from the personal to state and federal policy, to make a healthier future for Hawaii's keiki. We can lead the nation in supporting improved nutrition for our population, if we are willing to commit the resources.

State's rainy day fund seems to have run dry

It is apparent we are in the midst of long-standing poor planning that continues to undermine the state's fiscal well-being.

In January 2007, it was reported the state had a budget surplus of $736 million.

When I had extra money, I put it aside for a rainy day.

Now, state employees are being asked to sacrifice by Gov. Linda Lingle because of the financial crisis.

State employees hired on or after July 1, 1998, were subjected to an acceptable, negotiated five-day payroll to “;help fund”; their pay raises, but at the same time accepted a payroll two-week delay so the state could use the employees' money to pump up its cache.

Even after the budget surplus, employees' pay was not put back on track, and to this day two weeks of their pay is held hostage, only to be released “;when the employee retires or resigns from state service.”;

Enough already. Prudent oversight is essential before we run out of money, so the public won't fear back-door raids on special funds, retirement systems, payrolls, or cutbacks on services taxpayers have already and continue to pay dearly for.

State employees should not be used as pawns in the larger problem; we need competent management and forecasts in place first.

The rainy days are here.

Fears of Akaka Bill are unwarranted

The report presented last week by the Grassroot Institute and the Beacon Hill Institute is based on fear and spreads misinformation.

The only factual information available on costs related to the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act was prepared by the independent Congressional Budget Office for the 110th and 109th Congress.

In both the 109th and 110th Congresses, the independent analysis indicated the bill's cost would be about $1 million the first year and about $500,000 for subsequent years.

The CBO report also indicates passage of the NHGRA would result in no other cost impact at local, state and federal levels.

The NHGRA does not cause a loss of tax revenues or loss of state land. The bill reaffirms existing political and legal status as native people and sets forth a mechanism of federal recognition for a reorganized Hawaiian representative governing entity, similar to that which exists for American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Any changes, even remotely similar to the misinformation in the Beacon Hill report, would need to be negotiated among the state, federal and recognized Hawaiian representative governing entities, and then proceed through the relevant legislative process.

The Beacon Hill Institute is known as a fiscally conservative research entity affiliated with radical neo-conservatives.

Beacon Hill needs to do more research to better understand each of the peoples of our multicultural Hawaii. People of Hawaii do not refer to Hawaiians as all people living in Hawaii - they know that term is specific to the native, indigenous people of Hawaii, known on the continent as native Hawaiians.

Members of the Grassroot Institute have sued the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and other organizations with the intent of dismantling programs aimed at bettering the conditions of native Hawaiians.

Reporters should question the validity of the report's conclusions by holding both the Grassroot Institute and the Beacon Hill Institute accountable for how they arrived at their results and not take their information at face value.