Mini hotel in Napili should be razed at developer’s expense

Addressing the issue of the illegally built mini hotel masquerading as a family home in Napili, the concerns of the neighbors about the size/height is valid. The county came to their aid, as well as intends to uphold the integrity of the area by halting further construction. This is good.

For the county to acquire the monstrosity for any reason at all is NOT solving the problem at hand, because the project will remain. This will open the door for perhaps later litigation to prove that it was gained by the county by devious means.

It needs to be demolished in a timely manner by the developer, and the developer needs to assume the bill — NOT THE TAXPAYERS, via the county.

The developer also needs to be further fined for the years of annoyance to the neighbors.

It also needs be investigated as to WHO (which county employees) allegedly gave the permits for this development to happen, and why set building rules were skirted.

The developer also needs to be further fined for continuing construction when he received the “stop work” orders.

This blatant disregard for the Laws of the Land needs to be dealt with seriously to set a precedent.

So… NO, do not keep the immense building. YES, demolish it completely (paid by the developer) to set a precedent. INVESTIGATE for possible corruption those responsible for issuing the permits allowing the extreme height and size.

ANIKA LOKI, Lahaina

Refresh your knowledge about the origins of the U.S.

Reading our Declaration of Independence in exact content accomplishes much. The content is what first created the U.S. government in writing. Re-reading content in portions can be better to appreciate our beginning. As always, “He” indicates the King. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws, giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

BONNIE DeROSE, Lahaina

Zombie Build Back Better is a disaster for taxpayers

The Democrats’ Build Back Better bill has risen from the dead. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.), who killed the massive spending package last year, is back in conversation with his party’s leaders about advancing a slimmed-down version of the measure.

Taxpayers would be better off if Build Back Better died again. The legislation, if passed, would make permanent the wasteful Obamacare subsidies that went into effect in March 2021 under the American Rescue Plan and that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

The legislation made Obamacare tax credits more generous for those making less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $111,000 for a family of four.

In addition, it extended subsidies to people making more than four times poverty by capping what they’d have to pay in premiums at 8.5 percent of income.

The cost of these subsidies has far exceeded early estimates. Though the expansion is only scheduled to last until the end of 2022, the Congressional Budget Office originally predicted it would cost $34.2 billion over the agency’s ten-year budget window.

But a recent CBO report reveals the expansion will cost $30 billion this year alone — 50 percent higher than original projections, per former Trump administration economic advisor Brian Blase. Many of those taxpayer dollars will be funneled to disproportionately wealthy Americans.

As Blase has pointed out, couples making $500,000 in some parts of the country are newly eligible for more than $7,000 in exchange subsidies. It’s no wonder more than one million Americans making over four times the poverty level have enrolled in Obamacare this year.

Forcing taxpayers to continue picking up their health insurance tab will come at an enormous cost. The CBO pegs the cost of a permanent subsidy expansion at $220 billion.

That’s senseless. Cementing these ill-targeted subsidies in place would create an apocalypse for taxpayers.

SALLY PIPES President, Pacific Research Institute