Hawaiian Home Lands cuts rates ADVERTISING Hawaiian Home Lands cuts rates HONOLULU (AP) — The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is lowering its mortgage interest rates for the first time in 17 years and taking other steps to try to
Hawaiian Home Lands cuts rates
HONOLULU (AP) — The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is lowering its mortgage interest rates for the first time in 17 years and taking other steps to try to ease delinquent loans.
The agency is making several moves after an audit earlier this year said that the number of delinquent loans was increasing and the agency wasn’t adequately addressing the problem.
The department briefed state legislators on its plans on Thursday. Director Jobie Masagatini says the delinquency problem that goes back several decades is tough to solve.
Masagatini said rates were lowered in August on direct loans to 4.5 percent, down from 6 percent. She said the rates had not been lowered since 1996.
The department is planning a pilot program for the most badly overdue loans on the Big Island. It also plans a new tracking system for loans that are six months overdue. Masagatini says the department has to balance between helping homeowners and sending a message that they don’t have to pay.
The department provides leases to people who are at least 50 percent Native Hawaiian. It oversees a 203,000-acre trust and has awarded more than 9,000 leases. More than 26,000 potential beneficiaries are on a waiting list.
Lawmakers at Thursday’s meeting discussed the upcoming end of $30 million annual payments from the state that the department has received for 19 years. The last payment is set for the next fiscal year.
Traffic deaths decline on Maui
WAILUKU, Maui (AP) — Maui police are crediting a drop in traffic deaths with more drunken-driving arrests and other traffic enforcement.
Lt. Ricky Uedoi, commander of the police traffic section, says the numbers are a direct reflection of the work of the officers.
There have been 13 traffic deaths in Maui County this year, down about one-third compared with previous years. Uedoi says four were alcohol related and one was drug related. That’s down from 20 deaths during the same time frame in 2012.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving says about half the traffic deaths in all of Hawaii involve alcohol.
Uedoi says the number of DUI arrests in Maui is up 20 percent to 943 through the end of October, compared with 786 arrests during the same time frame last year.
DUI Task Force Officer Justin Mauliola said many DUI arrests in the popular tourist area of Lahaina aren’t tourists, but are residents.
