Many hours of incredible hula have drawn to a close in Hilo and the results of the 2012 Merrie Monarch Festival are in. According to www.bigislandvideonews.com:

…the night belonged to the group from Pauoa on Oahu, Halau I Ka Wekiu. Kumu Hula Karl Veto Baker & Michael Nalanakila’ekolu Casupang’s halau were top place finishers in both the Kane Kahiko and Kane ‘Auana divisions (1,147 points overall), and even took 2nd place in the wahina auana.

And here are the winners:

Kane Kahiko

Halau I Ka Wekiu
Na Kumu Hula Karl Veto Baker & Michael Nalanakila’ekolu Casupang
Pauoa, Honolulu, O’ahu

Wahine Kahiko

Halau O Ke ‘A’ali’i Ku Makani
Kumu Hula Manu Boyd
Kane’ohe, O’ahu

Kane ‘Auana

Halau I Ka Wekiu
Na Kumu Hula Karl Veto Baker & Michael Nalanakila’ekolu Casupang
Pauoa, Honolulu, O’ahu

Wahine ‘Auana

Halau Mohala ‘Ilima
Kumu Hula Mapuana de Silva
Ka’ohao, Kailua, O’ahu
Overall kane

Halau I Ka Wekiu
Na Kumu Hula Karl Veto Baker & Michael Nalanakila’ekolu Casupang
Pauoa, Honolulu, O’ahu

Overall wahine

Halau O Ke ‘A’ali’i Ku Makani
Kumu Hula Manu Boyd
Kane’ohe, O’ahu
OVERALL

Halau I Ka Wekiu
Na Kumu Hula Karl Veto Baker & Michael Nalanakila’ekolu Casupang
Pauoa, Honolulu, O’ahu

Congratulations to all of the winners and all of the participants! Though I think that the real winners are the residents of Hilo, who get to witness this incredible display of Hula every year.

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.