Mayor Kirk Caldwell wants a permanent extension of the general excise tax surcharge for rail. For that he is willing to share the revenue with the state. The rail project is out of control.

Our state politicians are contemplating raising taxes for the benefit of the Hawaii State Teachers Association.

This and more to raise money for the budget, which continues to grow at an incredible rate, affecting our cost of living.

The problem is not too few dollars, but that our state and city spend too much.

How about combining the state and city transportation departments and getting our roads and highways fixed?

How about doing a “root cause” analysis of our homeless problem? All we hear is that the problem is getting worse, which costs everyone more money.

Voters should think about it when election time comes around.

Ted Kanemori

Kaneohe

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Switch from rail to more buses

Let’s ditch the rail and put more quality buses on the road.

Doug Maier

McCully

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Protect the trees in Thomas Square

I found your article on Thomas Square quite interesting (“Re-imagining Thomas Square,” Star-Advertiser, Insight, Jan. 29).

However, I’m somewhat troubled by the minimal information provided about Thomas Square’s most important residents, the trees.

What trees will be removed, and which and how much of the remainder will be pruned? In order for trees to have the longest lifespan, it is essential that they are not singular; it has been proven that trees thrive when in proximity to others.

The other issue is the ages of the trees: To maintain a viable balance, trees of differing age should be present.

The exceptionalism of Thomas Square is not as a vehicle for public amenities, but to teach the exceptionalism of nature and the world of trees in as natural a way as possible.

As one of the few truly green areas in the neighborhood, delegating Thomas Square as yet another public playground would do a deep disservice to the community.

Robert L. Schwager

Waikiki

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Don’t allow culture of death in Hawaii

The acceptance of physician-assisted suicide is contrary to our “ohana values” in our aloha state.

Death by suicide is not an option for people who have families who love them. Legalizing physician-assisted suicide is like opening a Pandora’s box. Our cultural values rooted in love and trust will break down. The value of life will be determined by money; the trust relationship between physician and patient will deteriorate; other forms of euthanasia may become acceptable. For example, under the Texas Futile Care Law, physicians in Texas have the right to deprive their patients of life-preserving food.

As a pro-life advocate, I have heard and read too many stories where death has been imposed on people who wanted to die by natural causes. Too many of them have been condemned by premature death — execution by nurses, doctors, institutions, the state and society.

Dee Davalos

Pearl City

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Central Plaza will burden AOAOs

For years, Howard Hughes Corp. has hyped its Ward Village Central Plaza as an amenity to its million-dollar units in Waiea, Anaha, A‘eo, and now Ke Kilohana, to the point of incorporating into each condo’s documents the requirement the AOAOs (association of apartment owners) will be responsible for maintenance of its alleged Central Plaza.

Now they are hemming and hawing about actually initiating anything to construct said Central Plaza. Methinks the plan is to follow the usual developer strategy to take the money and run, and the Ward Village AOAOs will be left with the burden of building and maintaining a grassy area.

Thomas (T. J.) Davies Jr.

Kakaako

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Presidents lie, including Trump

Perhaps I’m old and cynical, but I’m pretty sure all politicians are liars. Thus I find Geoff Boehm’s contention that President Donald Trump isn’t a liar almost laughable (“Wrong to label Trump a ‘liar’,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Feb. 1).

Trump has made claims that are clearly false and refuted by evidence (e.g., crowd size, winning the popular vote, massive voter fraud), so by Boehm’s own definition Trump is a liar.

Ronald Reagan lied about selling weapons to Iran, George H.W. Bush lied about raising taxes, Bill Clinton lied about Monica Lewinsky, George W. Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and, as Boehm points out, Barack Obama lied about Benghazi.

I think what’s telling about Trump’s lies thus far is that they have been so self-serving and ego-driven. What does it say about the man that he doesn’t seem to be able to ever admit he’s wrong or that he’s not always No. 1? Almost laughable, but too scary to LOL.

Alika Campbell

Kailua

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Make effort to keep UH athletes here

Fred von Appen was not the right football coach for the University of Hawaii, but his coaching staff made the time commitment and devoted resources to sign as many local boys as possible (“Rainbow Warriors secure 23 recruits, none from Hawaii,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 2).

In 1998, 16 signed scholarship offers to attend UH. I recruited 15 of them. Every single boy who went on to the mainland was at least offered a scholarship. No one was overlooked.

Six out of those 16 ended up not qualifying under NCAA minimum academic requirements or were denied by the UH admission office, but the remaining 10 went on to become key players in June Jones’ success.

Subsequently, Jones’ staff had some success as well. It takes the right people, saying the right things, with the zeal to keep them home.

Guy Benjamin

Ewa Beach