Booze bill for golf course wrong on many levels I was shocked and highly disappointed to see Bill 2635 passed by the council on a 6-to-1 vote. It allows the concessionaire to sell liquor on the course. Only Council Chair
Booze bill for golf course wrong on many levels
I was shocked and highly disappointed to see Bill 2635 passed by the council on a 6-to-1 vote. It allows the concessionaire to sell liquor on the course.
Only Council Chair Rapozo had the brains and common sense to vote against this bill and he is certainly to be commended for his action. Even though he knew that he would not have the votes to stop it he voted his conscience.
Our mayor very wisely vetoed the bill and I thank him for doing his part in trying to stop a very wrong bill from becoming law.
And Kauai Police Chief Darryl Perry wrote an excellent article (TGI, Dec. 24) on why this bill should not be passed and I hope that everyone got a chance to read it.
He gave 10 factual, unarguable reasons why we do not need more alcohol use anywhere. He and his fine officers must be the first responders to the carnage that happens on our roads due to drinking drivers so what better source to listen to regarding bill 2635 than our chief.
Let me quote one fine paragraph from Chief Perry’s article:
“No matter how it is rationalized, the overall impact of allowing more alcohol to be served at the Wailua Golf Course adjacent to Kuhio Highway is a very bad decision and detrimental to the public we are sworn to protect.”
Even the rationale for passing this bill is extremely flawed. Supposedly by making an illegal action (drinking while playing golf) legal we are going to somehow increase the amount of golfers using the facility. People are already drinking and golfing but with no marshal to enforce the law the illegality goes on.
Taxpayers are subsidizing that course to over a million dollars a year and we are trying to increase participation to make it a true enterprise fund (income greater that outgo) as it was many years ago.
Reliable sources say that we have taken in enough money over the years to maintain the course without subsidization BUT we have used those excess funds for other purposes (like the General Fund!) and thus the need for added taxes.
Also, we are spending millions of dollars (fed, state and local) teaching our children to leave drugs along (yes, alcohol is a drug and probably the cause of more problems than any other) so by passing this bill we are sending the wrong message to them, counter to what we are trying to teach them.
Hopefully at least two other members of the council will join Chair Rapozo and vote “no” when this bill again comes up so that a 5-to-2 override of our mayor’s veto will not happen.
Glenn Mickens, Kapaa
