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”Hawaii’s Most Anti-Business Former Governor Opens a Business”
Former Gov. Benjamin Cayetano, who will go down in history as the most anti-small business governor ever to serve in Hawaii (or most states for that matter), has ironically just registered his own small business, according to the HawaiiReporter.com public record tracking system.
The report, originally found in the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs public records, says Cayetano registered his business as “Benjamin J. Cayetano LLC,” a Domestic Limited Liability Corp., on Jan. 24, 2003.
Cayetano is listed as the sole contact for the business, which is located at 1926 Okoa St., Honolulu, Hawaii 96821.
Maybe he’ll get a taste of his own anti-business medicine when he has to follow all of the rules and regulations he put into law and has to pay for all of the mandates and taxes he put on business owners. Or maybe he’ll be forced to buy a whole lot of political fundraising tickets from his fellow Democrats in the position of authorizing or funding state or county contracts in hopes of being awarded more government work.
”House-Senate Special Investigative Hearings Resume on Felix Expenditures”
The House-Senate Investigative Committee, the first committee of its kind in Hawaii formed in the summer of 2002 to look into state expenditures of more than $1.4 billion on special needs students and related programs since 1994, had its first meeting of 2003 this past Saturday behind closed doors.
The 12-member bi-partisan committee will meet again on Tuesday, Feb. 4, at the Hawaii State Capitol.
The investigation by this committee, which entailed issuing subpoenas to many of Hawaii’s private providers and state employees and directors with the Departments of Health and Education, uncovered questionable procurement of state contracts by then Superintendent Paul LeMahieu. In one case, he authorized a $600,000 contract to a woman he was in a “close personal relationship” with, according to testimony by the woman receiving the contract, the superintendent and other witnesses. LeMahieu quickly resigned after his actions, which included issuing the contract to the woman through another company because her company could not qualify for it, were exposed.
During more than 100 hours of hearings, several other private providers were questioned about their billing practices, including Loveland Academy, which was accused by one of its former directors of improprieties.
The committee also looked into allegations of wrongdoing and fraud by three federal court appointees