Opposition to Civil Unions

Thousands of people filled the State Capitol Rotunda today (Feb. 22) to voice their opposition to HB 444 which will trump Hawaii's marriage law and allow for Civil Unions. The masses listened to speeches from Hawaii's evangelical community as well as local legislators. HB 444 which passed out of the State House last week, is scheduled to be heard at the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday February 24 starting at 9:00 a.m. in the Capitol Auditorium. Everyone who opposes same sex marriage and civil unions are urged to send testimony to the committee at JGOTestimony@capitol.hawaii.gov. And then attend the hearing to voice your opposition to this bill.

• LINK TO HB 444
• HEARING NOTICE HB 444 FEB. 24 9:00 AM

• MORE PHOTOS AT THIS LINK

Dan Douglass for Honolulu County Chair

Dan Douglass for Honolulu County Chair, originally uploaded by macprohawaii.

"Between the Congressional and State elections, there will be 68 very important races in 2010. It will be an important opportunity to hold our ground and even grow the Republican presence in our Government. We must have the right Party Leadership to take us to victory. Electing the County Chair is an important first step in choosing that Party Leadership Team.

You can learn more about Dan at honolulucountygop.com. See for yourself why Dan has earned the endorsement of many community and Party leaders. See why you should attend the County Convention and vote for Dan Douglass for County Chair. "

I'm voting for Dan on March 14.

Rally Against HB 444 on February 22

Hawaii Family Forum and the Concerned Citizens of Hawaii will be holding a rally at the State Capitol on Sunday, February 22, 2009 starting at 2:00 p.m. The rally is being staged to protest HB 444 which would allow civil union benefit for gay couples. If the bill becomes law it will trample Hawaii's marriage definition law describing marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Hawaii voters allowed this to become law by a nearly 70% margin in the 1998 elections.

• INFORMATION LINKS ON CIVIL UNIONS
• DIRECT LINK TO HB444 BILL TEXT & INFORMATION
• AUDIO LINK TO RALLY RADIO SPOT

Update: Feb. 21 - HB 444 will be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, February 24 in the State Capitol Auditorium starting at 9:00 a.m.

British Queens in Honolulu

Cunard Line's Queen Mary 2 made a stop in Honolulu yesterday (February 15) on its annual around the world voyage. The majestic ship sailed into Honolulu Harbor early yesterday morning and remained in port for just a brief 11-hour refueling stop. Passengers were able to disembark and do some quick sightseeing in Honolulu before they departed in the late afternoon.

I made it to Honolulu Harbor area to take some photos of the Queen Mary 2 as she laid in port shortly before leaving. At precisely 5 in the afternoon, the mighty queen blew her whistle and casted off for her next destination. It took about 17 minutes to turn the ship around in the harbor. A small crowd was on hand to view and photograph the event. It's quite awesome to be fairly close up and watch the world's largest ocean liner turn around and sail out.


Above: People line the shoreline bank to watch QM2 depart Honolulu. Top photo: Queen Mary 2 docked at Honolulu Harbor. Photo taken from the Aloha Tower observation deck.

SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THE QUEEN MARY 2



Queen Mary's sister ship, Queen Victoria, also of Cunard line paid Honolulu a port visit on February 1. She was on her around the world trip too. The two queens now fill the void left by the Queen Elizabeth 2 which called into Honolulu Harbor for the last time in March 2008. She has since been retired and is now undergoing conversion to an entertainment center and hotel in the country of Dubai.

Civil Unions Bill Closer to Becoming Law

HB 444, a "Civil Unions" bill is closer to becoming law after it passed on a third reading vote in the Hawaii State House of Representatives on Thursday, February 12. The bill was passed with a vote of 33 to 17. Those representatives voting for this bill are doing it at the expense sacrificing traditional Christian and American values that define marriage as a "union between a man and a woman".

Those voting against HB 444 and the preservation of traditional marriage values include the following Representatives: Aquino, Awana, Ching, Choy, Evans, Finnegan, Har, Ito, Magaoay, Manahan, McKelvey, Mizuno, Pine, Sagum, Tokioka, Ward, Yamane

It is interesting to note that out of the 6 member Republican minority, 2 of the 6 members voted in favor of gay civil unions. Those two members are Rep. Marumoto and Rep. Theilen. Both voted for the bill in the House Judiciary committee. Representative Kym Pine listened to her constituents, and changed her "yes" vote to "no" in the latest vote. Good for Rep. Pine!

As expected the majority of the Democrats all marched in lock step with the loud and rude gay minority in the vote. One must point out that at least 13 Democrats voted against this bill.

HB 444 has now crossed over to the State Senate where it is expected to be heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

ACTION YOU CAN TAKE TO OPPOSE HB 444

Opponents of gay marriage and gay civil unions should start now and email their testimonies to the Senate Judiciary Committee as well as all 25 Senators as soon as possible. The Senate Judiciary committee email address is JGOTestimony@capitol.hawaii.gov. The bulk email address to all 25 Senators is sens@capitol.hawaii.gov. Testimony can also be sent through this web URL: http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/emailtestimony/. It may also be a good idea to email each Senator individually, or better yet, call, fax or visit them at the capitol in person.

When the hearing date for the bill is announced, send your testimony in again and appear at the hearing in person. You can be sure the vocal proponents of gay marriage will be there.

WHERE ARE HAWAII'S CATHOLICS AND MORMONS?

While there are many people and organizations who oppose same sex marriage and this new civil unions bill, the two biggest religious organizations in the State of Hawaii have been strangely silent on the issue. Both the Roman Catholic Church and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) have failed to activate their members to put on a unified front against this bill as they did to the recent Proposition 8 in California.

If you are a member of these two religious organizations, now may be a good time to ask your leaders to organize opposition to HB 444.

Organizations opposing the Civil Unions bill include: The Office of the Lieutenant Governor, Hawaii Family Forum, Christian Voice of Hawaii, Hawaii Christian Coalition, Pro-Family Hawaii, Beth Israel Ministries, Good News Jail & Prison Ministry, Christians in Real Estate, ACTS Foundation, Fiction Readers, Grace 4U Ministries, Fishnet Ministries, Brother Ben Prison Ministries, River of Life Mission, SADAKA International Dance Company, Island Women Restore Lives, Victory Ohana Prison Ministries, Sons of Issacar, Christ Centered Consulting, Market Place Ministries, Youth Vision, Christian Voice of Hawaii, International Dance Academy, The Open Door Academy, Windward Spouse Abuse Shelter, Ho`olohe Pono, Heart Light Ministries, Mercy Ministries International, Shelter of Wisdom, It's All His, It's All God's Ministry, Surfing the Nation, Dads Against Drugs, A2 Media, Hawaii Helps Disabilities, Waikiki Beach Outreach, and HE Reigns Christian Network.



Photos: The State House prepares to hose traditional marriage by voting for the Civil Unions bill above. Top photo: Hundreds filled the House gallery to listen to the short debate surrounding the Civil Unions bill. The people in the red shirts were against the bill.

No New Taxes!

Several bills are circulating in the Hawaii State Legislature that threaten to increase taxes. The liberal left Democrats as well as our own Republican Governor, Linda Lingle are proposing several pieces of legislation to bail the state out of its financial dire straits. Many of these are tax increase bills.

Hello tax increases? Hawaii citizens and business cannot afford to pay more taxes to the state during this downturn in the economy.

Tax increase bills that I am aware of include the following:

• HB 735 - Streamline Tax - This will tax all internet and mail order out of state purchases.
• SB 1678 - This is the Senate version of the internet and mail order tax proposal for out of state purchases. This bill already passed out of the Senate Economic Development and Technology Committee. Senators that want to take more of your money and who voted in favor of this tax bill include: Senator Carol Fukunaga, Roz Baker, David Ige. Voting against the bill Senator Sam Slom. Excused: Senator Hee. The bill was introduced by all 23 of the Democrat senators. Remember... all Democrats... and they all want to tax your internet purchases and take more of your money. The bill still has to go to the Senate's Ways & Means Committee. Given the overwhelming majority of the Democrats, it is likely this bill will pass unless it faces major opposition from the people, which at this point is unlikely.
• HB 1576 - Allows counties to impose half percent increase to GE tax on water to be used on water infrastructure.
• HB 1575 - "Authorizes a county to levy a one-half percent general excise tax to be used for county schools; establishes a County Education Surcharge Trust Fund; authorizes complex area superintendents to establish criteria for awarding schools funds from the fund." Seems like this tax proposal is to fund schools specific to each county.
  
• SB 1611 - This is a Democrat sponsored bill that proposes to raise the following highway use taxes:

  (1) Increase the state tax on liquid fuel by ten cents per gallon increase;

  (2) Increase the state vehicle registration fee by $20;

  (3) Increase the rental motor vehicle surcharge tax permanently to $5 per day; and

  (4) Increase the state vehicle weight tax.
  

  • The tax increases are supposed to fund highway improvements. These tax increases would not be needed if the State did not raid the present highway special fund that was reported to be around $700 million. The Governor has also proposed a similar bill. This bill was introduced by the following Democrat senators: ENGLISH, Baker, Bunda, Chun Oakland, Espero, Gabbard, Galuteria, Hanabusa, Kidani, Nishihara, Takamine, Tokuda, Tsutsui
  
  
• HB 1167 - The Governor's version of the same tax increases outlined above.
• SB 985 - The Senate version of HB 1167.
• HB 1527 - Increases the general excise tax on tobacco products other than cigarettes; designates a percentage of this increase to cervical and breast cancer screening and the Healthy Start program.
• SB 38 - Increases the tobacco tax on tobacco products other than cigarettes from 40% to 60% of the wholesale price and deposits 33.3% of the proceeds collected into the community health centers special fund.
• HB 895 - Similar to SB 38.
• SB 457 - Increases the state vehicle excise tax on passenger cars and pickup trucks weighing more than three thousand five hundred pounds net weight up to and including ten thousand pounds net weight.
• SB 719 - Another GE tax increase bill based on vehicle weight.
• SB 42 - Increases the liquor tax and directs the increased revenues to the health systems special fund.
• HB 1223 - Proposes an amendment to the State Constitution to authorize the legislature to increase the general excise tax by not more than one percentage point and dedicate the proceeds to funding a state long-term care program as prescribed by the legislature.
• SB 279 - Provides a vehicle to increase the TAT to pay for culturally-related programs. The Senate Tourism committee has deferred this bill.
• SB 1111 - Increases the rate of the transient accommodations tax beginning on July 1, 2009, and requires the additional revenues collected from the increase to be deposited into the general fund.
• HB 887 - Assesses a surcharge tax on the sale of consumer fireworks.

Hawaii taxpayers are overburdened with the high cost of living already imposed by taxes passed by both the state and counties in previous years. We are already paying 12.5% more in General Excise Taxes to fund Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann's "train to nowhere" project. Sewer and water bills are set to increase by the City & County of Honolulu later this year. Other taxes and fees have gone up over the years. We are worst off for paying taxes than we were when Linda Lingle first took office in December 2002.

Now is not the time to increase or impose new taxes.

The Vote on HB 444

CIVIL UNIONS BILL PASSES OUT OF HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

It is with great concern that Hawaii's marriage amendment will be seriously compromised if the Civil Unions bill that is making its way through the legislature passes. This week the bill (HB 444) was heard and passed out of the House Judiciary Committee with a 12 - 0 vote.

Judiciary Committee members who voted to pass this bill out include:

• Rep. Jon Riki Karamatsu
• Rep. Ken Ito
• Rep. Della Belatti
• Rep. Rida Cabanilla
• Rep. Robert Herkes
• Rep. Sylvia Luke
• Rep. Hermina Morita
• Rep. Blake Oshiro
• Rep. Joseph Souki
• Rep. Clift Tsuji
• Rep. Barbara Marumoto (R)
• Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R)

Four others on the Judiciary committee were absent. The bill will go to the House floor for a full vote and move on to the Senate if passed.

Those legislators who have voted for and will vote for this bill are showing their true liberal colors and destroying the traditional family that begins with the union of a man and a woman.

Civil Unions are a stab in the back to the 70% of Hawaii voters who approved a constitutional amendment in 1998 that defined marriage as a "union between a man and a woman".



Lt. Governor James "Duke" Aiona has been a long outspoken critic of same-sex marriage. An excerpt from his testimony on HB 444 rightfully reads:

Throughout the 1990's, our community engaged in an emotional, decade-long debate over the legalization of same-sex marriage. The Legislature, for its part, had amended HRS§572-1 to clarify that marriage "shall be only between a man and a woman[.]" The Legislature also passed a Reciprocal Beneficiary law where it expressly found that "the people of Hawaii choose to preserve the tradition ofmarriage as a unique social institution based upon the committed union ofone man and one woman. "

H.B. No. 444 now attempts to circumvent the will of the people by authorizing the equivalent to same sex marriage, albeit under a different name. That is, despite not referring to a civil union as "marriage," this bill would confer all of the rights, duties, and obligations of marriage to participants in a civil union by declaring that "lp]artners to a civil union . .. shall have all the same rights, benefits, protections, and responsibilities under law, whether derived from statutes, administrative rules, court decisions, the common law, or any other source of civil law, as are granted to spouses in a marriage[.] "

In view of the above, this bill clearly seeks to modify all Hawai'i law so that the terms "marriage" and "civil union" are synonymous. If the public is on record as being overwhelmingly opposed to the concept of same sex marriage, how could one conclude that they would support its 'identical twin' just because it goes by a different name? Under this bill, all of the above would occur without the public ever having an opportunity to vote on the legalization of civil unions.

It is time for individuals and organizations who support traditional American and Christian values to rally and oppose the Civil Unions bill. Call, fax and email your legislators and get them to stop this bill from becoming a law.

• State Capitol Website
• State House Judiciary Committee
• State House Members
• State Senate Judiciary Committee
• State Senate Members

Olelo Capitol TV Studio

A mini TV studio opened at the Hawaii State Capitol on Monday Feb. 2. The studio has a simple set, cameras, TV editing stations, computers (2 Macs and a PC), lighting, video tape recorders, sound mixer and more. An open house was held on Monday. The facility is operated by Olelo public access TV. The studio is located on the 4th floor in Room 414.

Olelo will train interested legislators and their staff on how to produce a show. Legislators will be able to produce shows and have them air on the Olelo and other public access channels throughout the State of Hawaii. Programs will also stream over the net.


One of the production stations in the studio.


One of two studio mini cameras that I noticed.

Top photo: People sitting at the TV studio set.

Pork Report - Hawaii's Wasteful Spending

The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii released its first annual Hawaii Pork Report on January 26 at the State Capitol. The 28 page publication is a report outlines areas of government waste perpetuated by both the State of Hawaii and the City & County of Honolulu.

The biggest item of government waste is the $7 billion fixed rail project that has been fast tracked by Mayor Mufi Hannemann and the City. The Hawaii Pork Report takes the mayor and city to task on the $2.9 million spent on public relations and advertising that occurred during the 2008 election season.

Mufi's train is being financed largely by local taxpayers through a dedicated portion of the State's most regressive General Excise Tax. In 2005 the State Legislature and Governor Linda Lingle allowed this tax to increase by passing HB 1309. The Governor was and is still chastised by fiscal conservatives, taxpayers, business and even some legislators for allowing this tax to become law without her signature. She was very close to vetoing HB 1309 in July 2005 but buckled claiming this was "a home rule issue" for the counties.

Baloney!

Three of the four counties in Hawaii turned down the 12.5% tax increase with only the rail lusting City & County of Honolulu going after it. When the Honolulu City Council voted 5 to 2 in favor of authorizing this tax, Mayor Mufi quickly signed it into law. While the City reaps the benefits of collecting funds from this additional tax, the State is the entity that is responsible for collecting this tax from businesses and dolling it out to the County. The State in response to this responsibility promptly took 10% of the additional tax right off the top as an administrative expense.

In the meantime most taxpayers, businesses, tourists and the military throughout the State are screwed with more taxes to pay. The GE tax increase took effect on January 1, 2007.

The cost for the proposed rail has ballooned to pass $5.3 billion with estimates now going as high as $7 billion just to build it. No one knows how much it will cost to maintain it.

Government has the responsibility to use tax dollars wisely in order to build and maintain public infrastructure. Road, sewers, schools and libraries are some examples of wisely using taxpayer funds. Building a rail that studies have shown will be ugly, intrusive and used by less than 10% of the traveling public is not a good use of taxpayer funds.

The major problem with the rail financing is that a dedicated tax is being used to fund this thing.

The Hawaii Pork Report goes on to point out other areas of government waste including the arts (is art an essential government service?), the City's "Stairway to Heaven", "The Boat", teacher vacations at Disneyland, the $1 million upgrade to the State Capitol's central mosaic, and first class travel by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) trustees.

OHA itself is a waste of government funds as the only thing they do is collect rent from the so-called "Ceded Lands", dream of new ways to spend tax dollars, and fight among themselves. I would not be surprised if they are plotting ways to overthrow the State of Hawaii and take the islands back to 1893 as an independent kingdom.

The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii plan to release a new report every year. The current one can be downloaded online from this link:

HAWAII PORK REPORT 2009



Photo & video: David Williams talks about the publication and government waste at January 26 press conference.