“Dick Rowland Image”

”Shoots (News, Views and Quotes)”

– Without Significant Reform, These Programs Are Not Sustainable

On March 17, 2003 the government released its 2003 Social Security &
Medicare Trustees’ report. This year’s report explains like never
before just how serious Social Security’s long-term problem really are:

*Within 5 years, these programs will go from providing revenue to the Treasury to requiring funds from the Treasury.

*By 2040, these programs will consume nearly half of all federal income tax receipts.

Above article is quoted from National Center for Policy Analysis March
17, 2003 https://www.ncpa.org

– Women and Guns

American women are often taught to rely on emergency 911 police
responses in the event of physical aggression. Unfortunately, more than
95 percent of 911 calls cannot be dispatched to police in time to stop
a crime or arrest a suspect.

This sad statistic is unlikely to improve significantly in the near
future because almost every state has ruled that police have no legal
obligation to protect citizens from crime.

The slowness of 911 emergency response — and the ineffectiveness of
restraining orders issued by today

“Dick Rowland Image”

”Shoots (News, Views and Quotes)”

– Summer Seminars in Political Economy (Oakland, Calif., August 11-15)

Most Americans believe in the importance of economics, but their
economic understanding often falls far short of their ideals. A recent
nationwide survey, for example, found that two out of three high school
students (and half of all adults) surveyed failed a test on economic
literacy. If the survey had asked questions on political theory and the
history of liberty, would they have fared any better?

Fortunately, the Independent Institute’s five-day-long Summer Seminars
in Political Economy can help narrow the gap. Designed as an
introduction for high school and college-age students, the Seminars
help students learn what economics is, how it affects their lives, and
how understanding economic principles can help them achieve the things
they care about.

Led by economist Brian Gothberg, each session includes a stimulating
lecture on economic principles, their applications in history and
current affairs, and plenty of classroom discussion to help students
become more confident in communicating their ideas and values.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

* Economics and Liberty: How the West grew rich and politically free

* Market Chaos or Hidden Order? How markets coordinate people’s plans

* Monopoly or Competition? How competition improves the quality of life

* Market Failure or Government Failure? Inflation, recession, the environment, and government policy

WHAT PREVIOUS SUMMER SEMINAR PARTICIPANTS SAY:

“This is a really great program! … I really enjoyed learning about all
the famous economists, their basic philosophies, and their influence on
economic reasoning. Overall, an exceptional week!”

“I enjoyed reading and hearing about different economists and seeing a
variety of views and beliefs. … I enjoyed having a small group, making
it easier to concentrate on everyone’s questions and statements, in a
more comfortable atmosphere.”

“I learned so much during the week about how our world works. The
things I learned were interesting, and I will be able to use them for
the rest of my life in all kinds of situations.”

INSTRUCTOR:

Brian Gothberg, Department of Economics and Finance, Golden Gate University; Lecturer in the History of Western Civilization, Academy of Art College

TIME:

8:30 a.m. – Noon

August 11-15

(Register early)

TUITION: $175

Room and board and one unit of college credit through Holy Names
College in Oakland, California, are also available at extra cost.

WHERE:

The Independent Institute

100 Swan Way

Oakland, CA 94621-1428

For more information, see
https://www.independent.org/tii/students/SummerSeminar.html or contact
Carl Close, Academic Affairs Director at the Independent Institute at
mailto:cclose@independent.org or (510) 632-1366.

Above article is quoted from The Independent Institute, The Lighthouse
5/12/03 https://www.independent.org

– Private Police Make a Difference

Residents in a crime-plagued Charlotte, North Carolina neighborhood
said they felt safer, heard fewer gunshots at night and saw fewer
people on street corners after private police began patrolling the area
this summer.

UNC-Charlotte professor James Cook conducted the study of the
neighborhood, Optimist Park, just north of uptown Charlotte. Cook
interviewed about 30 residents about their feelings about the private
patrols, which started in mid-June and lasted until mid-August.

The study showed 83 percent of residents said they felt safer and more
than 90 percent reported less loitering, while 77 percent reported
hearing fewer gunshots. Residents also said they saw the private police
patrol only twice daily. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg police couldn’t
immediately show whether crime went up or down during the two months of
private patrol.

Neighborhood leaders raised the $17,800 in donations to pay for the
patrols from Carolina Crime Prevention, a private policing agency.
Leaders noted that they raised the money after a city-appointed board
turned down their request.

Above article is quoted from Privatization Watch November 2002

”Roots (Food for Thought)”

A Tale of Two Cities

Author: Geoffrey F. Segal

Published: The Heartland Institute 04/01/2003

The city of Stockton, California just approved a 20-year, $600 million
partnership with OMI-Thames Water to operate the municipality’s water,
wastewater, and stormwater utilities. The partnership will save city
residents $175 million, greatly improve the infrastructure, and avoid a
double-digit rate increase.

Activist groups including Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen pressured city
officials to reject the contract. However, the debate ultimately boiled
down to two choices: privatize, or raise water rates significantly
while paying out huge fines. The city is not in compliance with current
environmental regulations and its permit will soon expire. One of the
components of the contract with OMI-Thames is a capital-improvement
program that guarantees the city’s infrastructure will be brought up to
current environmental standards. All of the risk and obligation will
fall on the contractor if it fails to do so.

The state’s budget woes threatened to slow the flow of funds to
Stockton, which realized it could not make the necessary improvements
and keep water rates down. Stockton ran the most open, public, and
lengthy review process that I, and the city’s privatization
consultants, have ever seen. Opponents were allowed to question every
aspect of the contract, and they could find no problems with it.

The Concerned Citizens lobbying group played an important role by
putting the city and mayor through rigorous question-and-answer
sessions. The many contract study sessions they prompted have assured
us the city has done its homework and is entering into an agreement
that will benefit taxpayers.

Unfortunately, despite its close involvement in the process, Concerned
Citizens continues to float misinformation and half-truths. It is
relying on fear, uncertainty, and doubt, not facts. Its members talk
about random rate hikes even though the city, not the contractor, is
ultimately responsible for setting the rates. They talk about selling
assets, when the city is in fact not doing that: It is simply entering
into an agreement to operate the facilities. The city will retain
ownership of all assets.

Atlanta, Georgia

Halfway across the country, the city of Atlanta recently cancelled a
contract with United Water for operation of its water system.
Ultimately citing poor performance and lower cost savings than
promised, the two parted ways in January.

A couple of important details got lost in the shuffle. United’s
performance, while far from perfect, was far superior to the city’s
track record of water supply operations before privatization. Moreover,
while the city released an audit stating cost savings were half what
they expected, that happened because “the savings were being used to
subsidize other government functions.” How is this a failure of
privatization? The city had been appropriating more than $40 million a
year before privatization, but paid United Water only $21.5
million–savings of $18.5 million a year.

The city’s plan to resume water supply operations itself will
essentially double the cost of service to consumers. The new plan calls
for expenditures of $41.1 million for the new in-house operations ($49
million if accounting for costs to other city departments).
Furthermore, the city has backed itself into more long-term obligations
by hiring back more than 300 employees, whose pensions will be paid for
years to come. The city also must now “find” the money to continue to
pay for the “subsidize[d] other government functions.” With no more
cost savings in sight, where will that money come from? Either higher
fees or additional taxes.

Of course, money wasn’t the issue in revoking the contract–quality was
the concern. But when United Water requested additional money to meet
the performance the city wanted, it was shunned … even though
United’s request was less than half of the spending the city now faces.

Will the city receive better service now that it is in-house? That
remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Ratepayers will be paying
a lot more for it.

Let’s revisit the issue one year from now, when I suspect residents
from Atlanta will be pining for the days of United Water–reliable,
quality, efficient service–while the citizens of Stockton will be
enjoying exactly that.

Geoffrey F. Segal is director of privatization and government reform
policy at Reason Foundation and a research fellow at the Davenport
Institute at Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy.
https://www.rppi.org

Above article is quoted from The Heartland Institute, Intellectual
Ammunition Spring 2003 www.heartland.org

”Evergreen (Today’s Quotes)”

[Trademark expression: “There’s no try, just do.”

Leadership tip: “When I was a teacher, I was told that a common mistake
a new teacher makes is to get invested in getting students to like you.
Same holds for leaders. You can’t take action on a popularity vote.
Instead, I make an effort to like the people I work with and serve. It
leads to better decision-making carried out well.”

“We have not laid off a single person in the history of LavaNet. How
many companies can say that?”

“If I knew more, I might have been a worse manager because I might want
to do it my way and not listen.”

“When you have a weakness, you turn it around and use it as your
strength.”] — Yuka Nagashima, President LavaNet Inc., interviewed by
David Butts, Advertiser Staff Writer 2/3/03

”’Edited by Richard O. Rowland, president of Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, 1314 S. King Street, Suite 1163, Honolulu, HI 96814. Phone/fax is 808-591-9193, cell phone is 808-864-1776. Send him an email at:”’ mailto:grassroot@hawaii.rr.com ”’See the Web site at:”’ https://www.grassrootinstitute.org/

“Dick Rowland Image”

”Shoots (News, Views and Quotes)”

– Summer Seminars in Political Economy (Oakland, Calif., August 11-15)

Most Americans believe in the importance of economics, but their
economic understanding often falls far short of their ideals. A recent
nationwide survey, for example, found that two out of three high school
students (and half of all adults) surveyed failed a test on economic
literacy. If the survey had asked questions on political theory and the
history of liberty, would they have fared any better?

Fortunately, the Independent Institute’s five-day-long Summer Seminars
in Political Economy can help narrow the gap. Designed as an
introduction for high school and college-age students, the Seminars
help students learn what economics is, how it affects their lives, and
how understanding economic principles can help them achieve the things
they care about.

Led by economist Brian Gothberg, each session includes a stimulating
lecture on economic principles, their applications in history and
current affairs, and plenty of classroom discussion to help students
become more confident in communicating their ideas and values.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

* Economics and Liberty: How the West grew rich and politically free

* Market Chaos or Hidden Order? How markets coordinate people’s plans

* Monopoly or Competition? How competition improves the quality of life

* Market Failure or Government Failure? Inflation, recession, the environment, and government policy

WHAT PREVIOUS SUMMER SEMINAR PARTICIPANTS SAY:

“This is a really great program! … I really enjoyed learning about all
the famous economists, their basic philosophies, and their influence on
economic reasoning. Overall, an exceptional week!”

“I enjoyed reading and hearing about different economists and seeing a
variety of views and beliefs. … I enjoyed having a small group, making
it easier to concentrate on everyone’s questions and statements, in a
more comfortable atmosphere.”

“I learned so much during the week about how our world works. The
things I learned were interesting, and I will be able to use them for
the rest of my life in all kinds of situations.”

INSTRUCTOR:

Brian Gothberg, Department of Economics and Finance, Golden Gate University; Lecturer in the History of Western Civilization, Academy of Art College

TIME:

8:30 a.m. – Noon

August 11-15

(Register early)

TUITION: $175

Room and board and one unit of college credit through Holy Names
College in Oakland, California, are also available at extra cost.

WHERE:

The Independent Institute

100 Swan Way

Oakland, CA 94621-1428

For more information, see
https://www.independent.org/tii/students/SummerSeminar.html or contact
Carl Close, Academic Affairs Director at the Independent Institute at
mailto:cclose@independent.org or (510) 632-1366.

Above article is quoted from The Independent Institute, The Lighthouse
5/12/03 https://www.independent.org

– Private Police Make a Difference

Residents in a crime-plagued Charlotte, North Carolina neighborhood
said they felt safer, heard fewer gunshots at night and saw fewer
people on street corners after private police began patrolling the area
this summer.

UNC-Charlotte professor James Cook conducted the study of the
neighborhood, Optimist Park, just north of uptown Charlotte. Cook
interviewed about 30 residents about their feelings about the private
patrols, which started in mid-June and lasted until mid-August.

The study showed 83 percent of residents said they felt safer and more
than 90 percent reported less loitering, while 77 percent reported
hearing fewer gunshots. Residents also said they saw the private police
patrol only twice daily. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg police couldn’t
immediately show whether crime went up or down during the two months of
private patrol.

Neighborhood leaders raised the $17,800 in donations to pay for the
patrols from Carolina Crime Prevention, a private policing agency.
Leaders noted that they raised the money after a city-appointed board
turned down their request.

Above article is quoted from Privatization Watch November 2002

”Roots (Food for Thought)”

A Tale of Two Cities

Author: Geoffrey F. Segal

Published: The Heartland Institute 04/01/2003

The city of Stockton, California just approved a 20-year, $600 million
partnership with OMI-Thames Water to operate the municipality’s water,
wastewater, and stormwater utilities. The partnership will save city
residents $175 million, greatly improve the infrastructure, and avoid a
double-digit rate increase.

Activist groups including Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen pressured city
officials to reject the contract. However, the debate ultimately boiled
down to two choices: privatize, or raise water rates significantly
while paying out huge fines. The city is not in compliance with current
environmental regulations and its permit will soon expire. One of the
components of the contract with OMI-Thames is a capital-improvement
program that guarantees the city’s infrastructure will be brought up to
current environmental standards. All of the risk and obligation will
fall on the contractor if it fails to do so.

The state’s budget woes threatened to slow the flow of funds to
Stockton, which realized it could not make the necessary improvements
and keep water rates down. Stockton ran the most open, public, and
lengthy review process that I, and the city’s privatization
consultants, have ever seen. Opponents were allowed to question every
aspect of the contract, and they could find no problems with it.

The Concerned Citizens lobbying group played an important role by
putting the city and mayor through rigorous question-and-answer
sessions. The many contract study sessions they prompted have assured
us the city has done its homework and is entering into an agreement
that will benefit taxpayers.

Unfortunately, despite its close involvement in the process, Concerned
Citizens continues to float misinformation and half-truths. It is
relying on fear, uncertainty, and doubt, not facts. Its members talk
about random rate hikes even though the city, not the contractor, is
ultimately responsible for setting the rates. They talk about selling
assets, when the city is in fact not doing that: It is simply entering
into an agreement to operate the facilities. The city will retain
ownership of all assets.

Atlanta, Georgia

Halfway across the country, the city of Atlanta recently cancelled a
contract with United Water for operation of its water system.
Ultimately citing poor performance and lower cost savings than
promised, the two parted ways in January.

A couple of important details got lost in the shuffle. United’s
performance, while far from perfect, was far superior to the city’s
track record of water supply operations before privatization. Moreover,
while the city released an audit stating cost savings were half what
they expected, that happened because “the savings were being used to
subsidize other government functions.” How is this a failure of
privatization? The city had been appropriating more than $40 million a
year before privatization, but paid United Water only $21.5
million–savings of $18.5 million a year.

The city’s plan to resume water supply operations itself will
essentially double the cost of service to consumers. The new plan calls
for expenditures of $41.1 million for the new in-house operations ($49
million if accounting for costs to other city departments).
Furthermore, the city has backed itself into more long-term obligations
by hiring back more than 300 employees, whose pensions will be paid for
years to come. The city also must now “find” the money to continue to
pay for the “subsidize[d] other government functions.” With no more
cost savings in sight, where will that money come from? Either higher
fees or additional taxes.

Of course, money wasn’t the issue in revoking the contract–quality was
the concern. But when United Water requested additional money to meet
the performance the city wanted, it was shunned … even though
United’s request was less than half of the spending the city now faces.

Will the city receive better service now that it is in-house? That
remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Ratepayers will be paying
a lot more for it.

Let’s revisit the issue one year from now, when I suspect residents
from Atlanta will be pining for the days of United Water–reliable,
quality, efficient service–while the citizens of Stockton will be
enjoying exactly that.

Geoffrey F. Segal is director of privatization and government reform
policy at Reason Foundation and a research fellow at the Davenport
Institute at Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy.
https://www.rppi.org

Above article is quoted from The Heartland Institute, Intellectual
Ammunition Spring 2003 www.heartland.org

”Evergreen (Today’s Quotes)”

[Trademark expression: “There’s no try, just do.”

Leadership tip: “When I was a teacher, I was told that a common mistake
a new teacher makes is to get invested in getting students to like you.
Same holds for leaders. You can’t take action on a popularity vote.
Instead, I make an effort to like the people I work with and serve. It
leads to better decision-making carried out well.”

“We have not laid off a single person in the history of LavaNet. How
many companies can say that?”

“If I knew more, I might have been a worse manager because I might want
to do it my way and not listen.”

“When you have a weakness, you turn it around and use it as your
strength.”] — Yuka Nagashima, President LavaNet Inc., interviewed by
David Butts, Advertiser Staff Writer 2/3/03

”’Edited by Richard O. Rowland, president of Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, 1314 S. King Street, Suite 1163, Honolulu, HI 96814. Phone/fax is 808-591-9193, cell phone is 808-864-1776. Send him an email at:”’ mailto:grassroot@hawaii.rr.com ”’See the Web site at:”’ https://www.grassrootinstitute.org/

“Sam Slom Image”

”’Hawaii Reporter is running a series of floor speeches from the 2003 Legislative Session in an effort to further debate in the state and make more public the Battle of Ideas that goes on at the state Legislature. This is the floor speech given by Sen. Sam Slom, R-Hawaii Kai, on March 31, 2003, during the 2003 Hawaii Legislative session in defense of Chevron-Texaco. Earlier this week, the state attorney general announced it would not pursue a lawsuit against the oil company because “there is no case.” This announcement came after previous governor’s administrations claimed the oil giants committed a variety of alleged offenses and took the companies to court.”’

Mr. President, I rise in opposition to the Senate concurrent resolution and resolution.

I’ve never been known as one to knuckle under to anybody or anything, and I see these resolutions as just another attempt at wealth envy by some in our state. The period of time of three decades was mentioned and I can recall, during those three decades, going to many hearings, sitting in on hearings, hearing charges and allegations. And that was during a period of time when the Majority Party, actually four decades, controlled this State lock, stock, and barrel — the executive branch, the judicial branch, the legislative branch.

I can remember two former attorney generals who were very active in the courts, and they came up empty. I can remember tax directors never saying a word about any kind tax problem. And when we read the resolution, we’re struck by the terms — may have, apparently, if, allegedly, potentially, probably, could have — and yet we’re urging further litigation.

Well, isn’t it wonderful that the law firm from Chicago has stepped forward as a pro bono effort to help the state. I haven’t seen too many of these law firms that have ever come forward to help this state or certainly to help the people. And when the statement is made “there’s no financial risk; there’s no expenditure,” that’s just not true. We may cover up our expenditure in terms of the time and the personnel that are involved. And we’ve seen this over the last couple of years when the past attorneys general were involved in these and other exploits. Those of us in the Senate saw hearing after hearing where people came from departments, and they’re still coming, saying we couldn’t get any relief or any help or any assistance from the attorney general’s office, so give us the power and more expenditure to hire our own attorneys.

If the resolution sought to provide new information or to urge that the new administration pursue any evidence which has been forthcoming, then I don’t think there’d be any problem because we can all support this. And you know what? The good news is the administration is doing just that. The attorney general is doing just that. But that’s a far cry from saying, “let’s have litigation based on suppositions and allegations. Let’s go after the company because it is large, because it is successful, because it is a primary energy producer in this state. Let’s go after them.”

And to make the analogy in the huge leap between Chevron-Texaco and Enron is disingenuous at best, dishonest, and knowingly so, at worst.

The fact that we have a study — the Gramlich and Wheeler study — well that’s reassuring. We’re the study capital of the free world. This body authorizes more studies than any other place on the face of the earth. We have a study which will show just about anything you want. But show hard evidence. Show evidence that will stand up in court, because that’s the bottom line if you want successful litigation. And that’s what our attorneys are doing right now, seeing if in fact there are any additional evidence or charges that will hold up in a court of law. We had all kinds of promises before of fraud, of wrongdoing, and none of them were substantiated in court.

And now we have crocodile tears for the taxpayers and consumers of this state. Isn’t it nice that individuals in this body are worried about being overtaxed and yet they continue to advocate and introduce higher taxes, newer taxes, increased fees. You want to help the consumers and the taxpayers, cut the taxes, reduce the taxes, eliminate the taxes. We have the power to do that.

And by the way, just in case anything is found by the oil companies or anyone else, that they in fact added to the cost of consumers, there’s nothing in the resolution, there’s nothing in past actions that gives anything back to the consumers. It would go back to the state.

So Mr. President and colleagues, all I see here is a chumming expedition, which is all the more interesting since we had the Majority Attorneys, the Majority Party, the Majority tax directors, everyone else looking into this situation for 10 years. It’s not a question that the merger between the two companies at this point, several years ago, is going to hide anything. It’s just that when you talk about the may’s, and the if’s, and the would be’s, and the could be’s, there’s nothing there.

We should prioritize our efforts. We should be concerned about consumers. We should also be concerned about those people within our midst in our community that are well documented and well known that do owe taxes to the state, but for some reason have been given a pass up to this point and not been taken to task for the taxes that they owe.

It’s fun to talk about the billions of dollars and millions of dollars that may be out there, but our job is to deal with the realities that we have, including balancing our budget and making sure that we don’t add to the discomfort and burdens of individual family and small business consumers in this state. And so far, we haven’t done that and these resolutions would not help in any way.

Thank you, Mr. President.

”’Sam Slom is the Republican Senator representing the Hawaii Kai area of Oahu.”’

“Sam Slom Image”

”’Hawaii Reporter is running a series of floor speeches from the 2003 Legislative Session in an effort to further debate in the state and make more public the Battle of Ideas that goes on at the state Legislature. This is the floor speech given by Sen. Sam Slom, R-Hawaii Kai, on March 31, 2003, during the 2003 Hawaii Legislative session in defense of Chevron-Texaco. Earlier this week, the state attorney general announced it would not pursue a lawsuit against the oil company because “there is no case.” This announcement came after previous governor’s administrations claimed the oil giants committed a variety of alleged offenses and took the companies to court.”’

Mr. President, I rise in opposition to the Senate concurrent resolution and resolution.

I’ve never been known as one to knuckle under to anybody or anything, and I see these resolutions as just another attempt at wealth envy by some in our state. The period of time of three decades was mentioned and I can recall, during those three decades, going to many hearings, sitting in on hearings, hearing charges and allegations. And that was during a period of time when the Majority Party, actually four decades, controlled this State lock, stock, and barrel — the executive branch, the judicial branch, the legislative branch.

I can remember two former attorney generals who were very active in the courts, and they came up empty. I can remember tax directors never saying a word about any kind tax problem. And when we read the resolution, we’re struck by the terms — may have, apparently, if, allegedly, potentially, probably, could have — and yet we’re urging further litigation.

Well, isn’t it wonderful that the law firm from Chicago has stepped forward as a pro bono effort to help the state. I haven’t seen too many of these law firms that have ever come forward to help this state or certainly to help the people. And when the statement is made “there’s no financial risk; there’s no expenditure,” that’s just not true. We may cover up our expenditure in terms of the time and the personnel that are involved. And we’ve seen this over the last couple of years when the past attorneys general were involved in these and other exploits. Those of us in the Senate saw hearing after hearing where people came from departments, and they’re still coming, saying we couldn’t get any relief or any help or any assistance from the attorney general’s office, so give us the power and more expenditure to hire our own attorneys.

If the resolution sought to provide new information or to urge that the new administration pursue any evidence which has been forthcoming, then I don’t think there’d be any problem because we can all support this. And you know what? The good news is the administration is doing just that. The attorney general is doing just that. But that’s a far cry from saying, “let’s have litigation based on suppositions and allegations. Let’s go after the company because it is large, because it is successful, because it is a primary energy producer in this state. Let’s go after them.”

And to make the analogy in the huge leap between Chevron-Texaco and Enron is disingenuous at best, dishonest, and knowingly so, at worst.

The fact that we have a study — the Gramlich and Wheeler study — well that’s reassuring. We’re the study capital of the free world. This body authorizes more studies than any other place on the face of the earth. We have a study which will show just about anything you want. But show hard evidence. Show evidence that will stand up in court, because that’s the bottom line if you want successful litigation. And that’s what our attorneys are doing right now, seeing if in fact there are any additional evidence or charges that will hold up in a court of law. We had all kinds of promises before of fraud, of wrongdoing, and none of them were substantiated in court.

And now we have crocodile tears for the taxpayers and consumers of this state. Isn’t it nice that individuals in this body are worried about being overtaxed and yet they continue to advocate and introduce higher taxes, newer taxes, increased fees. You want to help the consumers and the taxpayers, cut the taxes, reduce the taxes, eliminate the taxes. We have the power to do that.

And by the way, just in case anything is found by the oil companies or anyone else, that they in fact added to the cost of consumers, there’s nothing in the resolution, there’s nothing in past actions that gives anything back to the consumers. It would go back to the state.

So Mr. President and colleagues, all I see here is a chumming expedition, which is all the more interesting since we had the Majority Attorneys, the Majority Party, the Majority tax directors, everyone else looking into this situation for 10 years. It’s not a question that the merger between the two companies at this point, several years ago, is going to hide anything. It’s just that when you talk about the may’s, and the if’s, and the would be’s, and the could be’s, there’s nothing there.

We should prioritize our efforts. We should be concerned about consumers. We should also be concerned about those people within our midst in our community that are well documented and well known that do owe taxes to the state, but for some reason have been given a pass up to this point and not been taken to task for the taxes that they owe.

It’s fun to talk about the billions of dollars and millions of dollars that may be out there, but our job is to deal with the realities that we have, including balancing our budget and making sure that we don’t add to the discomfort and burdens of individual family and small business consumers in this state. And so far, we haven’t done that and these resolutions would not help in any way.

Thank you, Mr. President.

”’Sam Slom is the Republican Senator representing the Hawaii Kai area of Oahu.”’

“Ron Menor Image”

”’Hawaii Reporter is running a series of floor speeches from the 2003 Legislative Session in an effort to further debate in the state and make more public the Battle of Ideas that goes on at the state Legislature. This is the floor speech given by Sen. Ron Menor, D-Mililani, on March 31, 2003, during the 2003 Hawaii Legislative session in defense of the state’s investigation into Chevron-Texaco by the state attorney general, which began under Gov. Benjamin Cayetano. Earlier this week, the state attorney general announced it would not pursue a lawsuit against the oil company because “there is no case.””’

Mr. President, I rise to offer some brief remarks in support of Stand. Com. Rep. Nos. 1216 and 1217.

Mr. President, I believe that the testimony received by your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing with respect to these resolutions has made it abundantly clear that legal action against Chevron-Texaco is necessary if the State of Hawaii is to stand any chance of recovering millions of dollars in back taxes that the oil company has apparently failed to pay. During the hearings that the CPH Committee conducted on this issue, the Committee heard from a nationally recognized accounting and tax expert, Professor James E. Wheeler of the University of Michigan and the University of Hawaii, who explained in detail the complex and elaborate tax evasion scheme that Chevron and Texaco may have entered into with their joint venture, Caltex, and the government of Indonesia.

Mr. President, the specifics of this tax evasion scheme are summarized in the resolutions that are before all of you. So in the interest of time, I will not revisit them at this time. However, I would like to point out that according to Professor Wheeler, the state of Hawaii may be owed over $470 million in back taxes. Moreover, I would like to emphasize that it is especially important for Hawaii to proceed with litigation since it appears that the oil company not only avoided paying the state of Hawaii millions of dollars in taxes at prior years, but that the company continues to pursue this practice of tax evasion, according to Professor Wheeler.

Mr. President, there are several compelling reasons why I believe the state should proceed with legal action immediately. First of all, our state faces difficult economic times and we need the millions of dollars that the oil company may owe Hawaii, to fund important programs and services. We also need to stop any tax fraud that may be occurring and start receiving the unpaid taxes that the oil company owes the people of Hawaii. There also exists a likelihood that Hawaii’s consumers overpaid and continue to overpay for gasoline, since the State imports a significant percentage of its crude oil from Indonesia where the oil company is accused of conspiring to purchase crude oil at deliberately inflated prices as part of a tax evasion scheme.

The state also cannot look the other way if laws are being broken, and there is substantial evidence pointing to the oil company’s potential involvement in unlawful activities, including accepting kickbacks, filing false income tax returns, and falsely reporting business transactions. The government also has a basic obligation to enforce the law, not only as a matter of principle, but also in fairness to the honest taxpayers of our State who have to pay more than their share to cover the shortfall of those who do not.

The state must enforce the laws that we have on the books if it wants to maintain the public’s faith in our government institutions. At this time when many Hawaii families are struggling to make ends meet, we cannot let one of the wealthiest companies in Hawaii, and in the world, break our laws with impunity and leave the taxpayers of Hawaii holding the bag.

Finally, I believe that there is much to gain if legal action is successful, and little to lose, since the Chicago-based Winston & Strawn, one of the largest and most highly respected law firms in the nation on tax issues, is willing to take on this case at no cost to the state.

For these reasons, Mr. President, I ask my colleagues in the Senate to vote in favor of these resolutions so that they may serve as a catalyst to initiate a legal process which I think ultimately will benefit the people of Hawaii.

Thank you.

”’Ron Menor is the Democrat Senator representing the Mililani area of Oahu.”’

“Ron Menor Image”

”’Hawaii Reporter is running a series of floor speeches from the 2003 Legislative Session in an effort to further debate in the state and make more public the Battle of Ideas that goes on at the state Legislature. This is the floor speech given by Sen. Ron Menor, D-Mililani, on March 31, 2003, during the 2003 Hawaii Legislative session in defense of the state’s investigation into Chevron-Texaco by the state attorney general, which began under Gov. Benjamin Cayetano. Earlier this week, the state attorney general announced it would not pursue a lawsuit against the oil company because “there is no case.””’

Mr. President, I rise to offer some brief remarks in support of Stand. Com. Rep. Nos. 1216 and 1217.

Mr. President, I believe that the testimony received by your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing with respect to these resolutions has made it abundantly clear that legal action against Chevron-Texaco is necessary if the State of Hawaii is to stand any chance of recovering millions of dollars in back taxes that the oil company has apparently failed to pay. During the hearings that the CPH Committee conducted on this issue, the Committee heard from a nationally recognized accounting and tax expert, Professor James E. Wheeler of the University of Michigan and the University of Hawaii, who explained in detail the complex and elaborate tax evasion scheme that Chevron and Texaco may have entered into with their joint venture, Caltex, and the government of Indonesia.

Mr. President, the specifics of this tax evasion scheme are summarized in the resolutions that are before all of you. So in the interest of time, I will not revisit them at this time. However, I would like to point out that according to Professor Wheeler, the state of Hawaii may be owed over $470 million in back taxes. Moreover, I would like to emphasize that it is especially important for Hawaii to proceed with litigation since it appears that the oil company not only avoided paying the state of Hawaii millions of dollars in taxes at prior years, but that the company continues to pursue this practice of tax evasion, according to Professor Wheeler.

Mr. President, there are several compelling reasons why I believe the state should proceed with legal action immediately. First of all, our state faces difficult economic times and we need the millions of dollars that the oil company may owe Hawaii, to fund important programs and services. We also need to stop any tax fraud that may be occurring and start receiving the unpaid taxes that the oil company owes the people of Hawaii. There also exists a likelihood that Hawaii’s consumers overpaid and continue to overpay for gasoline, since the State imports a significant percentage of its crude oil from Indonesia where the oil company is accused of conspiring to purchase crude oil at deliberately inflated prices as part of a tax evasion scheme.

The state also cannot look the other way if laws are being broken, and there is substantial evidence pointing to the oil company’s potential involvement in unlawful activities, including accepting kickbacks, filing false income tax returns, and falsely reporting business transactions. The government also has a basic obligation to enforce the law, not only as a matter of principle, but also in fairness to the honest taxpayers of our State who have to pay more than their share to cover the shortfall of those who do not.

The state must enforce the laws that we have on the books if it wants to maintain the public’s faith in our government institutions. At this time when many Hawaii families are struggling to make ends meet, we cannot let one of the wealthiest companies in Hawaii, and in the world, break our laws with impunity and leave the taxpayers of Hawaii holding the bag.

Finally, I believe that there is much to gain if legal action is successful, and little to lose, since the Chicago-based Winston & Strawn, one of the largest and most highly respected law firms in the nation on tax issues, is willing to take on this case at no cost to the state.

For these reasons, Mr. President, I ask my colleagues in the Senate to vote in favor of these resolutions so that they may serve as a catalyst to initiate a legal process which I think ultimately will benefit the people of Hawaii.

Thank you.

”’Ron Menor is the Democrat Senator representing the Mililani area of Oahu.”’