• Fee a better option than tax • Glyphosate presents safety concerns Fee a better option than tax Kauai County currently licenses all transient vacation rentals. TVRs outside visitor designated areas have their license renewed annually with an annual fee. Others are
• Fee a better option than tax • Glyphosate presents safety concerns
Fee a better option than tax
Kauai County currently licenses all transient vacation rentals. TVRs outside visitor designated areas have their license renewed annually with an annual fee. Others are licensed once with no annual fee.
Suggestion: Require all TVR licenses to pay an annual fee and require all other visitor accommodation businesses (timeshares, hotel, resorts) to be licensed and to pay a similar annual fee. $360/bedroom/year would be reasonable and it’s not going to scare visitors away.
That’s far better than hitting all residents, rich and poor, with an increase in the general excise tax.
Michael Taylor, Princeville
Glyphosate presents safety concerns
The California Environmental Protection Agency announced that it plans to label glyphosate — the most widely used herbicide and main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup — as a chemical “known to cause cancer.”
Scientists have increasingly raised new alarms about potential negative health impacts tied to Roundup, including a recent study suggesting that long-term exposure to tiny amounts of the chemical (thousands of times lower than what is allowed in drinking water in the US) could lead to liver and kidney problems.
If you are a farm worker or work for the state, county, water department and landscape companies, you should be very concerned about your health. If you are healthy today, you may not be in your later years and it will be difficult to tie your illness to the pesticides you have been spraying.
If all workers said no to spraying this toxic and dangerous product, perhaps our island food and Kauai’s future will be safer.
Diana LaBedz, Waimea
