STATE TAX LAW DRIVES AWAY BUSINESS

This morning, I received a relayed e-mail from one of my clients:

"We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to notify you that your Associates account has been closed as of June 30, 2009. This is a direct result of the unconstitutional tax collection scheme passed by the Hawai'i State Legislature with an effective date of July 1."

The plan is fairly simple. The state will tax 4 to 5 percent on retail sales. The program only gives 8 percent total to the affiliates.

Amazon did the sensible thing. They simply shut Hawai'i out of the program, hurting a bunch of small family businesses.

For the legislators who don't seem to get it: Income for the state is defined as money coming from outside sources.

All the money that we trade with each other has nothing to do with growing our economy. If I give you a dollar, and you give me a dollar, we are no richer.

For small businesses, Amazon created a way that little guys can get into the marketplace without carrying a bunch of inventory. And the Legislature slammed the door on it.

Chuck Painter | Honolulu

SWINE FLU

WE NEED A TOUGHER SCREENING PROCESS

I was shocked to learn that the high school students on the Asian study tour were quarantined in South Korea for having swine flu. Doesn't anyone in our government think it's embarrassing and damaging to our image to be exporting a potentially deadly disease?

We already have an ailing economy and this just adds fuel to the fire.

The state Department of Health should take this disease more seriously and start screening our incoming and outgoing passengers to try to catch the cases before there is even more of an outbreak in the community.

Darren Souza | Honolulu

STATE WORKERS

GOVERNMENT DIFFERS FROM PRIVATE SECTOR

In a letter to the editor (June 30), Amy Sato says that when a business's income goes down, the first expense it cuts is labor. That may be true if the demand for its goods or services drops. However, the demand has not dropped for government services. In fact, in most areas, it has increased.

When demand increases, the usual response of a business is to increase its prices, not cut its labor costs. Therefore, a tax increase would be the logical response, if you want to run the government in a fashion comparable to the private sector. Also, you can build up an inventory of goods in a private-sector business, but government services cannot be inventoried, so when labor hours are cut, services must also be cut. Which essential government services do you want to cut?

Vern R. Lentz | Honolulu

WAIKIKI VENDORS

STREET PERFORMERS OFFER CHEAPER OPTION

In regards to your article about the Waikiki street vendors (June 29), for tourists to complain about the noise on the busiest part of Waikiki is wrong. They should stay out at Ko Olina if they want peace, because Waikiki has always been loud.

From what I see on the streets of Waikiki, they like it or they wouldn't be crowding the vendors as much as they do. Plus it's cheap entertainment. Due to the recession here, the businesses in Waikiki have not gotten cheaper to accommodate the tourists' shrinking wallets, but instead higher. So, yes it's only right that tourists would seek cheaper entertainment (have you ever bought a McDonald's biscuit for $4 in Waikiki — when they are $2 on Beretania Street?).

Maybe if the businesses were more fair about their pricing, they wouldn't have any competition from the vendors. Why pay $50 for a foot massage in a hotel, when you can get it for $10 from a vendor? I know that the Waikiki businesses need to take a long look on how they treat the tourists. Better service gets them in the door, not the high price of food, drinks and merchandise not even made here.

Skye White | Honolulu

BEACH BONFIRES

FIRE DEPARTMENT MUST BE NOTIFIED

The June 29 article on beach bonfires may have left a misperception that the Honolulu Fire Department will approve a bonfire on a public beach or believe a person's claim that a large fire on the beach is a cooking fire, perhaps an imu.

Those wishing to have a bonfire must have written permission from the property owner where the bonfire occurs and written approval from the fire chief. The state does not grant permission to hold beach bonfires, therefore, the HFD considers such fires unauthorized and will extinguish them when found.

Those wishing to conduct large cooking fires, such as imu or hulihuli chicken fires, must also have permission from the property owner. People who want to conduct a large cooking fire must call the HFD dispatch center at 523-4411 before lighting the fire. The HFD requires notification so it can provide fire safety guidelines and avoid unnecessary false alarms. Small cooking fires over a hibachi or grill do not require HFD notification.

All beach cooking fires must be contained in a hibachi or fire pit provided for cooking. Coals from the fire must be disposed of safely. HFD personnel will not accept the claim from people gathered around a large beach fire that it is an imu.

Fire Captain Terry Seelig | Public Information Officer, Honolulu Fire Department