This week, Nevada issued the first license in the U.S. to test Google’s self-driving vehicles on public roads.

 

State House Rep. Gene Ward wants Hawaii to do the same.

 

“It’s probably the safest and best place to test it,” he said. “Instead of an HOV lane, you could have a driverless car lane, where the computers keep the speed, the integration, the outgoing and the incoming in the traffic. It could be running just like a mass transit train.”

For the rest of the article, visit http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/18248443/google-ready-to-test-hands-off-vehicle

“If this was a family and we were on the kitchen table and we said ‘Here’s our budget,’ the question would be, would we break out the champagne?”

“We made it through,” said Rep. Gene Ward, (R) House minority leader. “We haven’t done any harm, but we also haven’t made it out of the woods. The budget grows again next year by an amount that we’re not sure if the variables of tourism slump and the Council on Revenues slump, we’re not sure where that money is going to be coming from.”

For the rest of the article, visit http://www.khon2.com/news/local/story/Legislative-session-wraps-up-last-day/f2kXpkbVuUicbl2zBmvXDw.cspx

Minority Leader Gene Ward said he supported the budget, but said lawmakers should be mindful of issues on the horizon that are not so “hunky-dory.” They include the unknowns of the price of gas, the Iran-Israel dispute and the presidential election.

 

The outcome of those events could impact Hawaii negatively, especially in the tourism industry. Ward said Hawaii had not “grown the pie” to help the state’s economy survive during future downturns.

 

The budget deserves not a champagne toast, said Ward, but a beer toast.

For the rest of the blog post, visit http://hawaii.politics.government.blogs.civilbeat.com/post/22334238278/oshiros-top-10-reasons-to-pass-budget

An open letter to Mayor Carlisle in opposition to a new landfill in the Ka Iwi area.

If this is the case, and “Uplands Hawaii Kai” means Ka Iwi, you will certainly have a battle on your hands. This is the area that our community has fought to keep free from development for over the past three decades… the only areas in Hawaii Kai that fit the criteria for public landfill development are those that are considered environmentally reserved. These areas have long been fought for and protected by the residents of Hawaii Kai and I’m sure they are prepared to fight again for these lands.

For the rest of the letter, visit http://hawaiiindependent.net/story/no-cabins-or-landfills-on-ka-iwi

• State banks are not insured by the FDIC and all $ risk is on taxpayers.

• A major function of the bank would be to buy toxic mortgages with taxpayers money – a very unsafe investment in an unstable economy with high unemployment.

• The only state-owned bank in America is the Bank of North Dakota, started in 1919 with $2 million for farmers. Today’s equivalent start up costs for such a bank in Massachusetts was estimated to be about $3.6 billion. such a bank in Massachusetts was estimated to be about $3.6 billion.

• Does Hawaii even have enough money for a down payment? No.

• If this model is adopted, our state bank would have Gov. Abercrombie as Chairman of the
Board, and political appointees from B&F and the AG;s Office as Directors along with members from the AFL-CIO plus 76 legislators controlling its budget.

• Do you think political ties will have anything to do with this banks loan decisions , and can we afford even a down payment on such a risky proposition?

Email your legislators to stop the bank: allreps@capitol.hawaii.gov

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/repward or click on the image.

House Minority Leader Gene Ward, (R-Hawaii Kai), who co-chairs the Legislative Small Business Caucus, said while the issue is taxes, fees are getting a free lunch with this report.

 

“Take the increase in the vehicle registration and weight tax increases of the past year that have created ’sticker shock’ for my constituents. So too this year, fee increases in the banking and insurance sectors are going to be astronomical and the price of paradise will go up again in a few months, while politicians brag that there were no tax increases in the 21012 Legislative Session. Shakespeare said it best, ‘A rose by any other name is still a rose’……….fees are simply taxes, but spelled differently,” Ward said.

For the rest of the article, visit http://www.hawaiireporter.com/hawaiis-hostile-business-and-tax-climate-garners-poor-ranking-in-new-entrepreneurial-index/123

“And this is toxic mortgages and it so brings up the old state bank and buying toxic mortgages. Mr. Speaker, if we get into buying and selling of houses, we have no experience. We have no money to do this. This is high risk. But you put it right next door to the military families. So you make it a sweet/sour kind of a combination and it leaves a bad feeling. So, I’m gonna love one section, hate the other…”

“Seventy to eighty percent of all the jobs come out of the private sector. This bill is exempting the government with the promise that we’re going to live happily ever after. Government can’t create wealth. CIPs can prime, but they are not the long range solution to the problem that we have — with the low incomes that we have in our jobs, the low paying jobs that we’ve got. And if people don’t have the jobs, of course we have to give them something temporarily. But this bill says the government, by exempting itself for these state projects, is going to be the elixir. And I think that’s the wrong way.”