PRESS RELEASE-- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 27, 2017 Lahaina, HI - WMTA Invites Community to Participate In Emergency Preparedness--West Maui Community Disaster Planning Meetings Scheduled The WMTA is working with the Maui Emergency Management Agency, formally called Maui Civil Defense, The Pacific Disaster Center, and the State Department of Emergency Management on developing a customized disaster plan designed to meet West Maui’s specific needs. The isolation from the Islands major hospital and the major airport due to frequent road closures, fires and flooding have highlighted the need for special preparedness planning. We agree with our partners in this process that communities that are capable of caring for themselves during and after natural hazard events, are better equipped to deal with the negative health, environmental, and economic impacts so common after a disaster. The West Maui Taxpayers Association invites you to join us and be a part of the solution to plans that may well be the reason why lives will be saved when disasters strike. Come and Join us! Through a series of monthly workshops presented by subject-matter experts, the Hawaiian Hazards and Resilience Program (HHARP) will provide education and outreach that promotes hazard understanding, and will offer tools and information resources to guide mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery planning for the community. The first series of HHARP workshops will cover a Program Overview, Introduction to Emergency Management in Hawaii, and Hazard Awareness. The schedule follows: February 16 5:30-8:00 p.m. Lahaina Civic Center - Social Hall March 16 5:30-8:00 p.m. Lahaina Civic Center - Amphitheater April 20 5:30-8:00 p.m. Lahaina Civic Center - Amphitheater May 18 5:30-8:00 p.m. Lahaina Civic Center - Amphitheater These meetings are free and open to the public. Our community is diverse and we need everyone’s participation to develop community plans. More Information on WMTA and Disaster Preparedness can be found at www.westmaui.org Please put these meetings on your calendar and plan to attend! Weekly Commentary For the Week of January 29, 2017 Peek-A-Boo! I See Your Tax Return By Tom Yamachika, President Recently, some lawmakers proposed a bill that would require presidential candidates to release their five most recent tax returns to the public as a condition of being allowed on the ballot. The measure apparently is in response to President Donald Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns. “It’s a reasonable step since every modern president has released their tax returns and put their assets into a blind trust to make sure the only interest they have is the interest of our country and its people,” the Star-Advertiser quoted one lawmaker as saying. Similar proposals are circulating in California, Massachusetts, and New Mexico. In most states, including ours, tax returns and tax return information are confidential. The reason for the confidentiality is that it is generally believed that people will be more honest with the government about their finances if the people won’t have to worry about collateral consequences from other folks peeking. What might happen if a nosy neighbor wants to peek? Or a business competitor? Or an opposition candidate if you are trying to run for public office? The interest in confidentiality is strong enough so that in civil litigation where parties are suing each other, parties are usually able to demand that the other side disclose any information “designed to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence,” but aren’t allowed to demand tax returns unless the judge thinks that there is a special need for them. Even in Hawaii, people don’t like to cough up tax returns or other sensitive financial records. Back in 2014, when a law (Act 240, Session Laws of Hawaii 2014) required that sensitive financial disclosures of many state volunteer boards and commissions be made public, Hawaii News Now reported that at least sixteen board or commission members resigned rather than allow their financial disclosures to be released to the public. The state Land Use Commission lost five of its nine members (56%), the board of the Agribusiness Development Corporation lost four of 11 (45%), the University of Hawaii Board of Regents lost four of its 15 (27%), and the board of the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation lost two of eight (25%). We need to ask ourselves what price is necessary to have a participatory role in government. If we want to have those with relevant experience and backgrounds to serve the public interest, do we need to have them bare all their financial information? In this digital age, potential office holders may well ask what consequences they or their family will suffer at the hands of those who may have a different political agenda once this information is irrevocably exposed. Some won’t want to take the heat and will get out of the proverbial water, leaving our country to be run by whoever is left. Even here at the Tax Foundation, where we often sing the praises of transparency in government, we have concerns about going too far. If the processes by which government decisions are made is open and honest, do we really need to thumb through every share of stock owned and scrutinize every deduction and credit claimed by each decision maker before we can restore some measure of trust in government? Maybe the supporters of this legislation think the answer is “yes.” If that’s the case, then why stop at presidential candidates? Maybe we should start in our own back yard. Would the proponents of this bill be willing to demonstrate their endorsement of that policy by producing their own tax returns for all to see? To view the archives of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii's commentary click here.
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