Hawaiian court orders Hawaiian government to pay $4 Billion damages for Maui fire. Guess whose taxes are going up?

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You can’t win. You can’t break even. You can’t even get out of the game. Not only is this how the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics works, it now applies to citizens who have been damaged by their own governments. The state of Hawaii has ordered the state of Hawaii to pay $4 billion in electrical fire damages. See link below.

You may recall the Maui fire a couple of years ago. Century old high voltage transmission lines, poorly maintained. Water service actually CUT to the adjacent hydrants. Years of neglected brush accumulation. Voila . .. your taxes are going up $4 billion.

Well, you didn’t expect Hawaii’s career politicians to accept any responsibility for this, and pay the damages themselves, did you? In fact, as far as I can tell, not a single one has resigned or faced a recall. Now that’s some chutzpah, eh?

The money is going to the survivors of the Maui fire of course. And they need it. It will be a decade – at least – before rebuilding is complete. And when it finally is, the plan is to convert the Maui economy to something other than a travel destination. What that will be is uncertain. But Maui 2.0 is unlikely to be as lucrative for residents, who face the nation's highest taxes, gasoline costs, grocery costs . . . and electricity rates.

To be fair, only 5 of the guilty parties are Hawaiian government related: The state itself; the county; the local school district; the monopoly electric company; and the monopoly phone company. Bizarrely, the water company which turned off the hydrants is not included in the settlement. The two private companies pleading guilty are Charter Cable and a local real estate company.

I suspect $4 billion isn’t going to be enough to replace all the buildings, purchase new cars and boats, restore the land, put in new electric, cable, and phone service, repave the roads, clean the beaches . . . well, there’s a LOT to do. But if the victims hadn’t accepted the $4 billion deal, they could have waited years – decades – for the courts to decide their cases. And their taxes would still be going up, and Maui would still be a tourist anathema.

In era where FDIC governors can head up banks which fail, and congress passes spending bills resulting in a $35 trillion federal debt, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that Hawaii’s politicians also duck responsibility for bad governance. If the courts can’t save us, then we need to save ourselves at the voting booth.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

~Plaintiffs in Maui wildfire case reach $4 billion settlement against Hawaiian Electric and others (yahoo.com)~