Planning Commission should address its mistakes

The Maui Planning Commission has been given the golden opportunity to benefit our community and help right the wrongs committed.

The recent Hawaii Supreme Court decision against the commission and Stanford Carr Development regarding its Kahoma Village project centers now on how to resolve the issues.

If they avoid responsibility, and ways are taken to circumvent the law, it leads to distrust and implications of corruption.

The resolution needs to be radically impactful to deter future offenses and ensure justice is served.

Irreparable damage to historical places must stop. The county’s new archaeologist will help with what the State Historic Preservation Division has been unable to protect, as evident in this case.

Now, when developers fail to disclose pertinent information, there is another layer of protection.

The resolution should entail funding for the development of a public historical park. Views from the park could overlook David Malo’s homestead along with the famous battleground and the ‘Alamihi Fishpond — now the location of Kahoma Village.

Besides ensuring Lahaina has a public park and historic preservation, the commission can help the developer make good on his promises of building affordable workforce housing.

Since the court ruled against them, this gives Stanford Carr a second chance to make right the “injustice” done to the “families who were to be Kahoma Village owners” by building houses for “the 50-plus Maui families who lost their opportunity to purchase a home.” (The Maui News, Stanford Carr Viewpoint, March 19, 2021).

There is hope that justice will prevail. They just need to do the right thing.

MICHELE LINCOLN, Lahaina

Do police target visitors’ cars?

I know you are trying to get rid of visitors, but you are being absolutely ridiculous.

Giving people tickets for parking in public lots in Lahaina? I know it said buses only, but at this time (April 26 to May 26), no tour buses are coming to Lahaina and using these spaces.

So, with limited parking, what is the problem with using these spots until the tour buses return, especially when one of us is disabled and uses a mobility scooter? There are very few handicap parking spaces available in town.

I wonder what the ADA would say about this?

It seems that the only people getting tickets are those cars that look like rental cars. Older, not maintained vehicles (locals’ cars) do not get ticketed. Discrimination?

Enclosed are photos of a local vehicle parked in a three-hour street parking stall, which has been there day and night for 30 days of our stay.

Located at the corner of Front and Papalaua streets, I bet it is still there — and still no tickets.

We have been coming to Maui for 30 years, stay one to two months, and have given your economy hundreds of thousands of dollars. No more — we have made our last visit there.

Wishing you luck after chasing all industry out of Maui — cane fields, pineapple fields and now tourism. I hope everyone survives without tourism money.

CONNIE COWAN, Surprise, AZ

The Mom and Pop tax break

Starting in July, millions of families in the United States saw hundreds of dollars in their bank accounts that weren’t there before.

It’s so rare for our government to give unrestricted cash to ordinary families that some are wondering what the catch is. But there’s no catch — only one of the best programs to cut poverty in this country that we’ve seen in decades.

The new expanded child tax credit boosts the traditional program to include families making no-to-low income as well as middle class families. And it offers larger, advanced monthly payments rather than just one lump sum at tax time.

With the average cost of housing, feeding and clothing a child running more than $1,000 a month, the expansion of the child tax credit could pay as much as a third of the yearly costs of raising a child in the United States — and help break millions of families out of the cycle of poverty.

If it sounds too good to be true, it’s because we’re more used to our government giving tax breaks to the wealthy.

We spent about $1.3 trillion in tax breaks for well-off families in 2020.

But this one really is for Mom and Pop. And making it permanent would cost just $160 billion a year — far less than those tax breaks for the already wealthy.

We could easily earn it back by making the CEOs of wealthy corporations pay their fair share.

Not only will the credit help more families make their way into the middle class, it will also help boost spending on things like restaurants, retail and other local businesses.

This expanded child tax credit is a chance for our country to boost our economy for everyone.

We should not miss this opportunity to make it permanent.

DOMENICA GHANEM, Otherwords.org