Archive for the ‘Sen. Baker’ Category

In support of streamlined sales tax proposal

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Keiki Caucus

The Keiki Caucus, along with business and community leaders, yesterday gathered in support of SB 2405 and HB 2352, which would allow Hawaii to implement the streamlined sales and use tax agreement and collect taxes on out-of-state sales. Currently, Hawaii is unable to collect sales tax on out-of-state purchases, including those made through catalogs and over the Internet. The proposed measures would adopt amendments to Hawaii tax laws to implement the existing streamlined sales and use tax agreement.

The amount of sales and use tax revenues that have remained uncollected is significant. “Last year, the National Conference of State Legislatures calculated that $245.5 million was not collected by our state,” said Senator Suzanne Chun Oakland, chair of the Human Services Committee. “At the same time, hundreds of thousands of children and youth in Hawaii are being impacted by the cuts that have already been made in public education, child care, higher education, public health services, youth services and public assistance, to name a few.”

“Think about furlough Fridays,” suggested Representative John Mizuno. “If we had collected that $245 million, would this even be an issue?”

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Senate committees to twitter hearing updates

Monday, February 1st, 2010

TwitterThe Senate announced today that several committees will be participating in a pilot project using Twitter to provide real-time updates on the progress of committee hearings.  The Senate Committees on Higher Education (HRE), Consumer Protection (CPC), and Health (HTH) will be sending messages to let followers know that the hearing has convened, the bill or measure being discussed, and when the hearing adjourns.

“The new social media is the perfect tool to “tweet” real-time updates during our hearings to keep the public informed,” said State Senator Jill Tokuda, chair of the Committee on Higher Education.

“There are times when members of the public want to be in two different hearings at the same time,” said Senator Rosalyn Baker, Chair of the Committee on Consumer Protection.  “Twitter will also help the public with long hearing agendas, so they can monitor the committee’s progress and return to the hearing when we are discussing the measure of interest.”

“The Twitter Pilot Project is part of our on-going efforts to use technology to improve public access to the legislative process,” said Senator David Ige, Majority Technology Leader.  “We have improvements in the Capitol website, with video archives of legislative proceedings, and bill tracking systems.”

To get real-time hearing updates join the following Senate Committees on Twitter at:

 

Senators Gabbard and Baker to Convene Informational Briefing on Island-Wide Power Outage

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

Senator GabbardState Senator Mike Gabbard (West Oahu), chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and the Environment, today announced that his committee, in conjunction with the Senate Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection chaired by Senator Roz Baker (West Maui), will convene an informational briefing on January 14, 2009 at 2:00pm in Conference Room 229 at the State Capitol.

The purpose of the briefing is to investigate the causes of the power outage on December 26 that left the entire island of Oahu without power. The briefing will also focus on the reasons for the delay in restoring the power and possible solutions. In addition, the status of electrical systems on the neighbor islands will be explored.

Gabbard said, “I want to make it clear that this is not about pointing fingers and playing the blame game. The business community and residents deserve some answers. These outages do far more than simply leave our residents sitting at home in the dark. They have serious negative effects on businesses and our economy which is having a tough enough time as it is. I’ve been getting calls from small businesses that lost tens of thousands of dollars in damaged merchandise, in addition to lost business because they couldn’t stay open without electricity. We also need to find out what steps need to be taken to develop a more stable and reliable electrical grid.”

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Senator Baker to be Honored

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

Dr.Vogel Senator Baker 

State Senator Rosalyn “Roz” Baker of Maui will receive the Mauka Makai Award for her significant contributions to the progress of cancer research, treatment, and education from the Cancer Research Center of Hawai‘i at the annual Mauka Makai…Voyage of Discovery gala on Friday, September 19, 6 pm. to 9:30 p.m. at the Waialae Country Club.

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