No Ferry To Maui

[ScubaSeanMaui]

Democrats say they will convene a special session to change thelaw to let the ship sail

 

[Charlie99]

Democrats say they will convene a special session to change thelaw to let the ship sail

Let's say that the legislature in the next month or so passes a law that allows operation of the ferry. A wise business owner would still be looking for a good use of the ferry elsewhere because that law will be appealed.

The superferry would be in the same situation they were in as of July-September 2005 where they had all approvals and they had won the mutiple court cases filed against them and the state. Only two years later, just as they were ready to start did the Hawaii Supreme court overrule the lower courts and issue a summary judgement.

Even if a new law is passed, the ferry still faces being shutdown again whenever the Hawaii Supreme Court decides that the new law violates the state constitution. Maybe a week later. Maybe 3 years later.

The superferry execs need a good psychic in to do business in Hawaii. Or maybe, having chosen to do business in Hawaii they need to see a psychiatrist to check into their sanity.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

Just backwards, what a shame.

 

[Lopaka]

The bottom line is that this state has a track record of disregarding the will of the people. It is not the first time this state gambled and lost because they failed to listen to their constituency. The whole VanCam fiasco should have been a wakeup that the citizens of this state refuse to quietly accept what government wants to foist on them!

That's what can happen when you effectively have a "ruling party": they do not fear being voted out of power and will do whatever their personal fortunes lead them to do. Don't like your tax increase? Tough, what's Hawaii going to do about it? Nothing, they will keep voting them back in again.

They have had absolute veto power over everything for years, so the notion that this mess was somehow slipped in under the radar by the "opposition" (what, all two of them?) is beyond foolish, it is dishonest. Political hacks playing their games in the dark have been flushed into the spotlight, and they are in frantic CYA mode.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Even if a new law is passed, the ferry still faces being shutdown again whenever the Hawaii Supreme Court decides that the new law violates the state constitution. Maybe a week later. Maybe 3 years later.

Following this sadly mistaken line of reasoning is not relevant, or logical. The appeal process is what it is, and the Hawaii Judiciary has responded with this letter to the Maui News; Timeline given for appeal to Supreme Court

Kachingle is attempting to cash in with the same irrelevent and illogical line of reasoning, quoted yesterday as having no responsibility for the situation and placing all the Blame on the Supreme Court. We will see if she and HSF are successful with their media manipulation of the masses and the Legislature, but even if they are Kahilui Harbor will probably need Nawiliwili'ish Unified Command Martial Law to maintain order.

Conde Nast's Traveler poll was released this last week and Maui tops the Pacific Islands list again, as it has for all 11 years. Kauai was second again in the poll, and these annually repeated results point to the possibility that signifigant progress and change might not be neccessary from a tourism perspective.

In fact, Maui not only ran away with “Best Island,” it won the “Best of the Best Crown” by outscoring other islands like Bali, Vancouver, Bermuda and Mykonos and the Cyclades. The Valley (or Magic) Isle also outpolled every other vacation destination in the world, beating San Francisco (“Top U.S. City”); Florence (“Top European City”); and Sydney (“Top Pacific City”).

IMHO this is an indication of what the environmentalists are fighting over; No reason for a Big Fix for something that isn't really broken, visitors like the outer Islands so much already they are being Loved to Death. HSF will just increase the speed with which we approach said Death

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

So has anything happened recently?

 

[Charlie99]

So has anything happened recently?

The legislature went into a special session and passed two laws. One was about special sentencing of career criminals and was to replace/modify a law that the Hawaii Supreme Court found unconstitutional. The other law was one that said that the ferry could operate while the state did an envirionmental impact study on the harbor improvements. In both cases, the legislature is basically saying that the Supreme Court didn't interpret the laws as we intended, so we will rewrite the law.

The district court injunction based on the prior law is still in effect. A hearing on whether or not it will be lifted will be held next week.

My guess is that the circuit court judge in Maui will lift the injunction, and then there will be lawsuits filed claiming that the recently passed law is unconstitutional. My other bet is that it won't take the Hawaii Supreme Court two years to get around to ruling on it this time around.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Here are most of the signifigant events, as told by the Honolulu Advertiser. The 6 major papers covering these events all had varying degrees of agreement with these articles.

Kauai Senate Hearings

Maui Senate Hearings

Hawaii Senate Hearings

Lingle calls Special Session

Senate passes compromise Superferry Bill

House passes Senate Version

NOAA says year+ for Incidental-take-permit and Fed observers

Lingle signs Superferry Law

Superferry Probe Stymied

Cardoza to hear arguments Wed

Superferry Maui Traffic Order

This last one concerns the still existing 2 car per minute limit imposed on Superferry cars entering Kahului traffic, apparently unaffected by the new law.

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

What a mess huh?

 

[Cacia]

The laws are not coherent here, I could give many examples.

The state of Hawaii has wasted so much of our time...and money.