Timothy Schools is resigning as president of American Savings Bank.

Schools, who has served as ASB's president since February 2008, said he plans to return to his family in South Carolina.

ASB's parent company, Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., said it has hired the executive search firm Korn/Ferry International to conduct a nationwide search.

Last year, Schools earned $1.15 million as ASB's president, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

'TAX FREEDOM DAY' EARLIER HERE THIS YEAR

The so-called "Tax Freedom Day" for Hawai'i residents was yesterday, or four days earlier than occurred last year.

Tax Foundation annually provides an estimate of the tax burden shouldered by taxpayers across the nation, calculating how many days of the year residents of states have to work to pay their federal, state and local taxes before earning money for themselves.

This year, Hawai'i's tax freedom day falls on the same day as the national average. The Tax Foundation, a Washington-based nonprofit group, said Hawai'i has the 19th highest tax-time period in the nation.

The methodology used in arriving at Tax Freedom Day has been criticized in the past by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which said it overstates tax burden because it includes taxes paid here by tourists.

The center also has criticized the report for overstating the tax burden for many people because the Tax Foundation uses an average tax liability that is skewed higher by the upper-income households.

HECO WINS GRANT FOR PHOTOVOLTAIC STUDY

Hawaiian Electric Co. and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District have won a $2.97 million grant to study ways how increasing levels of photovoltaic power can be accommodated on electric grids.

The award from the California Solar Initiative Research, Development, Deployment and Demonstration Program is to be matched by $1.29 million in support from the utilities and their research partners. They are to demonstrate and test new hardware and software tools for communicating and management of photovoltaic systems.

HECO said its partnership with the Sacramento utility was timely because both are seeing increasing levels of photovoltaic installations and need new tools to predict and monitor high levels of power being generated by the systems while maintaining reliability.