STVR bills ‘should be soundly defeated’
After nearly unanimous opposition at previous hearings, Bills 121, 122, and 123 (regarding short-term vacation rentals) have again resurfaced.
These bills should be soundly defeated and a values-based (welcoming, self-sufficient, supportive, reasonably priced, safe are some values I would propose) economic study conducted on how to best plan the future of the Big Island.
The bills are anti-Big Island economy by creating a complex, cumbersome, wrong-headed attempt to destroy a grassroots, largely locally based, vacation rental industry while rewarding off-island corporate hotel owners and management companies.
Eliminating vacation rentals by over-regulating them will not solve our homeless problem. Most vacation rentals are furnished and in fairly expensive areas and will not be changed to house the homeless.
Repurposing vacant hotels/houses/county and state lands (with purpose-constructed infrastructure and adequate supportive social services) is a much more effective approach than the effective takings proposed in these bills.
Expanding ecotourism and diversifying/expanding agricultural production, rather than limiting use of ag land for STVRs, can support our island’s self-sufficiency and preserve the income of our farmers and ranchers.
When the county started regulating vacation rentals in 2019 after many had been destroyed by lava, they said they would use the new fees to enforce the new rules over what they had now defined as “illegal.”
They then failed to enforce, and the result is that now legal operators are being asked to pay even more now to fill the county coffers (while the county is again failing to enforce against the few bad actors).
These small local entrepreneurs offering guests reasonable, enjoyable vacations are being harassed by the county while hotel operators are moving proceeds of their expensive offerings off-island.
The county should concentrate on creating a positive, welcoming environment for vacationers, as well as their constituents.
Hartley Phillips
Pahoa
The U.S. needs to call Putin’s bluff
When will the United States government finally get its head out of the sand in regards to Ukraine? Vladimir Putin is a KGB terrorist. He only has to say nuclear and our government shrivels, snivels, whines and hides in a corner.
Putin is a bully. I had to deal with bullies in junior and senior high. Late in my junior year of high school, I was sitting on a bench in the locker room tying my shoes when I heard footsteps behind me. There was a click and the point of a knife in the back of my neck.
At that moment, I knew exactly who it was and the reaction this action was supposed to elicit. Rather than beg, snivel and plead for my life, as he wanted, I asked, “Are you going to kill me?”
I really hated to disappoint him. The knife point left my neck. I heard a click, footsteps, a door opened and closed. I never saw him again and always hoped to hear he had been killed in Vietnam. No such luck! It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
A bully is a bully, and Putin is no different. He wants alienate Ukraine so he can have unfettered access to the Black Sea. Putin wants Alaska back, and if Donald Trump wins, he may just let him have it.
Putin cries nukes and our government runs and hides in a corner. Call his bluff. Russia must be entirely removed from Ukraine.
Slava Ukraini!
Dave Kisor
Pahoa