Monthly Archives: September 2017

Don’t miss Bloomberg’s story on Kushner finances

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A post here at the beginning of the week looked at a recent example of fake news, an article reporting on the dismissal of a federal lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee stemming from the 2016 primary election. In the fake news version, quotes from the judge’s order were characterized as something they definitely were not. [See “Here’s how fake news works“]

What I didn’t know is that the publication where this fake news appeared–The New York Observer, an online newspaper that discontinued its print edition late last year–was purchased by Jared Kushner for $10 million in 2006, reportedly as part of a graduation present from his father.

Kushner stepped down as publisher of the Observer in January after becoming a top advisor to his father-in-law, Donald Trump.

At that time, Kushner transferred the Observer to a Trump family trust, a move which some ethics experts worried was not sufficient to eliminate potential conflicts.

But that’s just an aside to the plug I want to give to a detailed investigative story by David Kocieniewski and Caleb Melby which was published on Bloomberg.com this week (“Kushners’ China Deal Flop Was Part of Much Bigger Hunt for Cash“). It is a long and detailed look at the shaky financial status of Kushner’s real estate empire, and provides additional context to Trump entanglement with Russian interests.

Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and top adviser, wakes up each morning to a growing problem that will not go away. His family’s real estate business, Kushner Cos., owes hundreds of millions of dollars on a 41-story office building on Fifth Avenue. It has failed to secure foreign investors, despite an extensive search, and its resources are more limited than generally understood. As a result, the company faces significant challenges.

Over the past two years, executives and family members have sought substantial overseas investment from previously undisclosed places: South Korea’s sovereign-wealth fund, France’s richest man, Israeli banks and insurance companies, and exploratory talks with a Saudi developer, according to former and current executives. These were in addition to previously reported attempts to raise money in China and Qatar.

And that search for significant new investors has failed, according to this review.

It’s a fascinating read. Don’t miss it.

Don’t miss the WaPo photos of pet rescues

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I have to admit that I spent a lot of time yesterday going over a set of photos collected by the Washington Post of people and pets coping with Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath (“After Harvey, rescues and reunions of owners and their pets“). This collection is definitely amazing in what it shows about the depth of animal-human relationships.

I desperately want to display a couple of my favorites, but I don’t want to rip off the photographers. But there are definitely some winners here. Here’s a link to one of my favorites.

Anyway, do take a look.

And in the meantime, here are a few more of the dogs we meet regularly on our early morning walks.

More Kahala Morning Dogs

Feline Friday: Worrying about Mr. Toby

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We got an update last night from the Veterinary Emergency + Referral Center of Hawaii, where Toby is being cared for.

Their deep dive diagnostics have found several ailments in this nearly 15 year old cat (Toby is just a couple of weeks shy of his 15th birthday). Some of these are theoretically worth worrying about in the longer term, but are probably not directly related to the acute problems that took him to the vet. Or at least that’s what we’re hoping as we absorb the vet’s news, and try to focus on the immediate issues.

The most relevant bad news is that the infection has traveled from his lower urinary tract up into his kidneys, so becomes somewhat more difficult to treat and can result in longer term loss of kidney function. We won’t know much about that until later today, when they’ll do another blood test to determine whether he’s responding to the fluids, a different antibiotic, and an anti-nausea drug.

But for this Feline Friday, enjoy this little video from 2012 showing Toby in better times. We were still living in Kaaawa, and I was down for what I hoped would be an afternoon nap when Toby went into his routine. I’ll let the video take it from there.

Get well, Toby!

Rail bill permanently shifts hotel tax $$ away from neighbor islands

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If you wonder why neighbor island legislators are angered by the using the hotel room tax to pay for Honolulu’s rail system, check out Nancy Cook Lauer’s story in Sunday’s Hawaii Tribune Herald (“Who pays the price? Many on Big Island not on board to fund rail for Honolulu“). It’s an excellent story, pinning down Big Island legislators, but it also caught a key part of the rail tax story of special relevance to the neighbor islands that hasn’t gotten much attention.

She writes that the proposed changes to the state’s hotel room tax will take a “temporary” reduction in the neighbor islands’ share of the tax and make it permanent, costing each of the counties close to half of what they were receiving prior to the recession.

And to twist the knife a bit more, setting a permanent cap requires walking past the recommendation of group appointed by the legislature itself, which advised that the share of the tax allocated to the neighbor islands should grow as the total amount collected grows.

Lauer explains:

Lawmakers favoring the measure say the bill increases the $93 million TAT cap for counties to $103 million and makes it permanent. That raises Hawaii County’s share from $17.3 million to $19.2 million.

That still falls far short of the amount the counties used to share before the amount was “temporarily” capped during the Great Recession. The Legislature’s intent at the time was to return to the original formula once the economy stabilized.

The purpose of the cap was to “temporarily increase and preserve the amount of state revenues derived from the transient accommodations tax and is a necessary component of the package of legislation aimed at addressing the state’s current economic crisis,” according to a 2011 conference committee report signed by former money committee chairmen Rep. Marcus Oshiro and Sen. Donna Mercado Kim.

Under the old formula, Hawaii County would have received $37.2 million for the 2015-16 fiscal year, according to calculations based on the state Department of Taxation’s 2016 annual report.

In response to a $20 million budget shortfall, the Hawaii County Council and Mayor Harry Kim raised property taxes and gas taxes this year.

“We’re going to have to tax the public even more, and that’s something we don’t want to do,” Okabe said. “It’s not fair.”

A 13-member State-County Functions Working Group established in 2014 by the Legislature recommended a formula allowing county TAT revenues to grow as the visitor industry grows, rather than being capped at a set amount. The Legislature set up the working group after conceding that the TAT allows the counties to better provide for public safety, parks, road maintenance and visitor-related services.

“The increase and permanent cap on Hawaii Island’s share of the TAT is an insult to our island families and is a pittance from the state,” Kahele said.

You have to wonder whether this is going to do longer term political damage to Honolulu-Neighbor Island relations.