As Hawaii transitions out of the holiday season and into the new year, Politics Hawaii with Stan Fichtman was once again featured on KHON 2 News, sharing insights (or mana’o) on the key issues to watch in 2025.
Ultimately, Kai Kahele’s political future hinges on how well he performs as OHA Chair. Time and action, though, will tell if this is the start of his political comeback.
The 2024 General Election may have seemed like a typical, low-key local affair, but it delivered a few surprises that weren’t exactly on anyone’s radar before November 5.
The key question emerging from the shutdown of SMS is whether Hawaiʻi’s government and private entities are helping or harming local firms through their procurement rules and procedures when hiring local firms for consulting and other work. Additionally, it raises the issue of whether the “buy local” philosophy is genuinely supported by these rules.
Senator Hirono, therefore, is providing a strategic reminder that fierce advocacy can attract resources back home, even if it clashes with the local preference for subtlety. Which, despite our wish that it was not, is a more effective way to get things done in Washington DC.
The State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) and the Hawai‘i Housing Finance & Development Corporation (HHFDC) have recently confirmed that the state contracts previously held by SMS Research & Marketing Services, which recently shut down operations, have been transferred to other entities.
It seems, the company has fallen on hard times, and its owner took out a loan to bridge the funding gap the company was experiencing, starting in August of 2024.
So the question now becomes more focused as to the current situation at hand, that a company with a large value, and with their work with Maui and the Lahaina wildfire, high profile studies, that in the matter of a few days, the company has shuttered its doors?
And if this shutdown stands, SMS becomes yet another reminder of the ever-changing landscape of businesses, of all kinds, in Hawai‘i.
If the green fee is passed, it will fund a captive insurance program to mitigate rate increases due to natural disasters, providing better economic security for the people of Hawai‘i. The state could argue that the fee is necessary to preserve and protect its residents amidst a brain drain driven by cost of living increases.