Blog
News, updates, finds, stories, and tidbits from staff and community members at KAHEA. Got something to share? Email us at: kahea-alliance@hawaii.rr.com.
Tell 'um, Chris Lee!
We’re liking this op-ed by Rep Chris Lee, in Tuesday’s Advertiser, on why selling state lands to fix the state budget is an exceptionally bad idea. An excerpt:
The sale of state land makes exceptionally poor financial sense and cheats taxpayers out of billions of dollars. More important, it defies our constitutional obligation to hold Hawai’i's greatest resource in public trust for future generations. Ultimately, the life of the land will not be perpetuated by selling our children’s legacy, especially when the permanent long-term loss far outweighs the temporary short-term gain.
See the full opinion piece: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100518/OPINION03/5180309/Even-in-a-crisis-selling-state-land-a-bad-idea
Ceded Lands Supreme Court Oral Arguments Online
Transcript of today’s Supreme Court Oral Arguments are already online: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/07-1372.pdf
(Thanks to iLind.net for the tip.)
Bad Mauna Kea Bills Move Through Legislature
From Rob Perez’s excellent coverage of the Mauna Kea bills currently moving through the state legislature:
Two bills (HB 1174 and SB 502) giving UH authority over the 11,000-plus acres of ceded lands it leases from the Department of Land and Natural Resources have been approved by two committees each in the House and Senate, worrying environmentalists, Native Hawaiian groups and others.
The bills permit UH to regulate public and commercial uses of the land, and critics believe that authority would be broadly applied. Lawmakers call the legislation a “work in progress.”
“This is a very, very bad idea,” said Marti Townsend, program director of KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance.
Critics say transferring such oversight to UH would be a huge mistake in light of the school’s poor track record on Mauna Kea and the dangerous precedent the action would set, essentially turning over responsibility for the land to its leaseholder or developer.
See full article at: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090222/NEWS03/902220351/1001
Tightening the Grip of the State
From our intern, Koa Luke:
From the Hawaiian Independence Blog.
Unfortunately, this is something that has been severely abused; no programs or land from these ceded/seized lands was ever created or given to the descendants of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Instead, these lands are abused and used by the state for things such as the Honolulu International Airport and the University of Hawai’i Manoa campus where Hawaiians are sorely underrepresented in the student population.
One of the administration’s main arguments is that the 1993 has no legal standing and its writ claims the apology bill is merely symbolic. On their website, www.stopsellingcededlands.com, Kupu ’Aina correctly explains that “allowing the sale of ceded lands before those claims are resolved is detrimental because it reduces the bargaining power of the Native Hawaiian community to resolve these claims.”
