Hawaii is actual number 1 for something. According to Fitch and Moody’s Hawaii is number 1 when it comes to debt as a percentage of GDP. Somehow I don’t think it’s a good sign to be number one in this measure.

According to Hawaii Reporter:

According to newly released Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Services, Hawai‘i ranks first in the amount of debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product and second in debt per capita: almost $8000 for every man, woman and child in the state.

Wow! $8,000 for every resident of the state and this doesn’t count all the debt imputed to us at the federal level. I sure hope that interest rates don’t go up.

The article also quotes Bob Marx who is running for congress:

Speaking to a group of students near the University of Hawai‘i – Hilo, Marx stated: “I stand with former Governor Cayetano in his opposition to the proposed Honolulu Rail Project. Increasing the debt for Honolulu and writing it off on rural Oahu, the neighbor islands, and our future generations is not only fiscally irresponsible but impractical.”

“As usual, the City of Honolulu will again ask the rest of the State to pick up its tab on bloated spending projects. Importing steel from Europe will not create jobs for Hawai‘i. Working class people on Oahu have been hit hard enough already by the economic downturn, and raising taxes on them is not the solution. As a small business owner, I know the devastating effect that even a 1/2 percent excise tax increase can have on a business.”

General excise taxes are paid by businesses on gross receipts, not on revenue. Therefore, even businesses that are losing money would be asked to pay more. Documents presented by former Governor Cayetano and his supporters at a press conference yesterday outlined the questionable nature of the project’s proposed job creation statistics.

I don’t get it. I don’t live in Honolulu and I won’t benefit from the proposed rail system, yet I still have to pay tax to help fund it?

Don’t even get me started on the GE tax. Even if my business loses money I still have to pay tax?

Doesn’t it make more sense to have a consumption tax? Say we exempt the first $25K of spending and then tax the rest. This way people with low incomes who spend primarily on necessities aren’t taxed. And people who have the money to spend on luxuries are taxed more. Sounds a lot fairer to tax people when they have the money to spend. Than to tax businesses even if they are struggling and not making money. After all if we tax businesses that are struggling and they then shutdown, what happens to all the people working for them?

The Shipman House aka Shipman Castle is one of the nicest homes in Hilo. It is so nice that instead of calling it a house, most of us call it a castle. I’ve never stayed there as it is a little too extravagant for me. And I have a hard time paying to stay somewhere, when I can drive less than 10 miles and sleep in my own bed, in my own home.

The Hilo Fairgrounds has been selected as the new location for the Big Island Massive Reggae Concert. It isn’t just any Reggae Concert it is a Massive Concert and it turns out is was too big for its original location which was the Hilo Dragstrip. Well it wasn’t really too big, it just so happened that the concert was booked immediately prior to the Big Island Auto Club’s fundraiser for the Food Basket and they were worried that the close booking didn’t allow enough time for proper cleanup between the two events.

According to Hawaii 24/7:

An unforeseen scheduling conflict involving a Hilo concert and a motorsports race has been resolved, with the concert promoters graciously agreeing with the County to an alternate venue, the Hawai’i County Department of Parks and Recreation announced Thursday.

The Big Island Massive Reggae concert and voter-awareness event will be held April 20 within the fairgrounds area outside the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.

I’m just glad that they could work things out. Overall I think that this can be really good for the concert because this moves its venue closer to the center of Hilo making it more convenient for people to attend.

Eighty year old Merrill Smith can see again. The Hilo man slowly began losing his vision over the past few years, but thanks to a revolutionary surgical procedure his eyesight is improving.

He said: “Actually I couldn’t see faces and I had a lot of dead spots where I was looking. Where ever I concentrated on would just go behind the fog.”

According to this article, Hawaii is one of the first states to offer this procedure:

But lucky for the Hawaii Island man, who used to be a finish carpenter and mechanic, a new technology utilizing an implantable eye telescope is now available in Honolulu.

“So just like the telescopes we use to look at the stars it’s the same magnification principals but literally in a microscopic version,” says Dr. Michael Bennett of the Retina Institute of Hawaii.

Ten centers across the U.S. offer this new technology and Honolulu’s Retina Institute is the only one in the state to offer it.

“That is, the telescope itself, the image goes through the front part of the lens and is projected onto the front part of the retina,” Dr. Bennett says.

Smith is highly optimistic about this amazing new surgery. He said:

“I am right on the edge of being able to read. I mean, I got an idea, it gets clearer and clearer everyday.”

And the best news of all is that this $15,000 procedure is covered by Medicare for those who qualify. It just goes to show you that amazing things are happening in our great state.