Term limits just might help
Ordinarily, I oppose term limits in municipal elections. Although I cannot speak for Kauai, term limits only became fashionable on the Mainland after women and minorities succeeded in being elected to office.
However, one of the Kauai County Council members is so disrespectful and seemingly uninterested in what is going on that he used an earphone to listen to a ball game while important issues were being discussed before the council. Hopefully, he will be voted off of the council in the coming election. If not, I can only look forward to term limits eventually doing the job!
Linda Estes, Koloa
Speak up Wednesday about excise tax
In January 2019 our County of Kauai surcharge on state tax will be raised half of 1 percent to supposedly bring in about $25 million per year for basically repaving our badly deteriorated 300 miles of county roads. The key word here is “supposedly” since a past check of our income for roads repairing, numbers given me by our fine Finance Director Ken Shimonishi shows that from our fuel, weight and public franchise tax totaling about $17 million a year, we were only using about $1.2 million of it to actually pave our roads.
However, it is also very obvious that adding this new excise tax to everything we buy, every service we use and is a very regressive tax that older people and even people without vehicles will pay is not right.
Using plain common sense it can be seen that if only about 1/17th of monies taken in now from taxes specified for our roads goes there, why are we to believe that a new regressive tax raising $25 million will go to repaving our roads — the major talking point for implementing this tax?
So now, to give back the taxpayers a “gift” for imposing a new tax the council is proposing to lower the vehicle weight tax and the fuel tax by about $4 million a year meaning that if all these measures are passed in 2019 we, the taxpayers will get a net loss of $21 million — $25 million less the $4 million — great logic?
Let me suggest a proposal with a better ending.
First, eliminate the excise tax that was passed by a 6-to-1 vote of this council. Only Chair Mel Rapozo had the courage, the foresight and the guts to vote no on this tax. His research obviously showed enough waste in the $17 million taxes taken in to pave our roads — eliminate that waste and all other waste that our late auditor Ernie Pasion found and no new taxes are needed.
Then really give the taxpayers a break and lower the weight and fuel tax as proposed and have a net gain in their expendable income.
Please, people, write, call or come to the next Council Committee meeting on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. and testify when Bills 2679 and 2680 come up and tell all members to pass these two bills only when Bill 2670 (excise tax bill) is eliminated.
Glenn Mickens, Kapaa
