UH Cancer Center backs bills to boost cigarette tax 2 cents
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE @STARADVERTISER.COM The University of Hawaii Cancer Center in Kakaako as seen Thursday.
The University of Hawaii Cancer Center would receive a welcomed funding boost if the Legislature increases the state's cigarette tax by another 2 cents, while a separate Senate bill would have forced the center to merge with the UH medical school, which UH previously said would jeopardize the center's accreditation.
UH officials and health and cancer organizations support Senate Bill 1528 and the latest version of House Bill 441, which would increase the cigarette—or 'little cigar '—tax to 18 cents from 16 cents.
The additional tax would be dedicated to the Hawai 'i Cancer Research special fund while simultaneously making it more expensive to buy cigarettes across the islands.
The latest version of HB 441 has been scheduled for a House Education Committee this afternoon at the Manoa campus with the UH Board of Regents.
SB 1528 has been referred to different Senate committees but has yet to be scheduled for hearings.
UH officials Thursday continued to push back against the latest effort by state Sen. Donna Kim—who chairs the Senate Higher Education Committee—to merge the Cancer Center with UH's John A. Burns School of Medicine and have the center's director report directly to the medical school dean.
Don 't miss out on what 's happening !
Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It 's FREE !
Email 28141 Sign Up By clicking to sign up, you agree to Star-Advertiser 's and Google 's and. This form is protected by reCAPTCHA.
A similar bill Kim introduced in 2020 was opposed by then-UH President David Lassner.
In his testimony at the time, Lassner said Kim's bill usurped the authority of the UH Board of Regents while placing the UH Cancer Center's accreditation from the National Cancer Institute at risk.
Kim's 2020 bill 'would replace the judgment and decision of the Board of Regents, which established the Cancer Center in 1981, ' Lassner wrote in testimony at the time, 'without regard for the potentially devastating impacts of such a change.'
At the time, the Cancer Center had been designated as one of only 71 NCI-designated cancer centers in the nation. There are now 72.
Earlier in 2020, Lassner said the center was visited by a committee composed of cancer center directors from across the county who made their annual visit to the UH Cancer Center to ensure it was complying with NCI guidelines.
He quoted the committee for praising the center's 'free-standing center with defined authority ' as 'vital ' for its success and continued NCI designation.
Lassner also quoted the chair of the evaluation committee as saying that 'most institutions ' were interpreting NCI guidelines 'as meaning the cancer center director should have the authority equivalent to that of a dean.'
Kim's current proposal—SB 1204—provides no justification or reasoning for folding the Cancer Center into the medical school and making the center's director report to the JABSOM dean.
During a Senate Higher Education Committee Thursday on SB 1204, new UH President Wendy Hensel told the committee that UH Manoa Provost Michael Bruno was working on developing a recommendation over whether to merge the Cancer Center into JABSOM.
Bruno told Kim that the possibility of a merger could 'take advantage of efficiencies.'
And UH officials acknowledged that half of the 72 NCI-accredited cancer centers around the country operate within their medical schools.
Currently, Hensel said, the Cancer Center sits among 'the top 4 % in the country ' compared with all other cancer centers.
Hensel asked Kim to 'respectfully … withdraw the bill ' to give UH time to research the issue and make a recommendation on how to proceed for the 2026 legislative session.
Kim, clearly exasperated, said she has been asking for years for a plan and recommendation from UH over what to do about the Cancer Center.
But Kim agreed to defer her bill—in yet another sign of the honeymoon period Hensel continues to enjoy with key senators after years of them expressing unhappiness and open frustration toward Lassner and his top administrators.
'Your frustration is certainly justified, ' Hensel told Kim. 'We will get it done.'
Before Thursday's Higher Education hearing, Bruno and Cancer Center Director Naoto Ueno wrote in testimony supporting increasing the cigarette tax that Cancer Center funding has fallen as statewide smoking cessation efforts have succeeded.
More than 70, 000 people in Hawaii 'are living with cancer and praying for a cure, and each year 2, 300 Hawai 'i residents die of this terrible disease, ' they wrote.
Cigarette tax revenue helped build the Cancer Center and its ongoing anti-cancer efforts.
'However, due to the success of smoking cessation efforts, this revenue has declined, indicating both progress in public health and a concerning decrease in resources for the initiatives that have fueled this advancement, ' Nueto and Bruno wrote.
'Now providing less than half the funding compared with that of 2009, this source of revenue is no longer able to support its original intent to provide a top-notch facility, and to invest in the most promising cancer research, clinical care and community outreach.'
Opposition includes testimony from Tina Yamaki, president of the Retail Merchants of Hawaii.
She wrote that increasing the tax would disproportionately hurt sales for small businesses, 'potentially leading to job losses and closures in an already fragile economic climate. We would also see more people purchasing these products on military bases or having friends and family purchasing it for them.'
'The higher price of these types of goods would only make it more attractive to shoplift, ' Yamaki wrote.
Support for an increase in the cigarette tax to help the Cancer Center has come from Hawai 'i Pacific Health, The Queen's Health Systems, the Hawaii Medical Association, the Hawaii Medical Service Association and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
16 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Trump says he ordered subs repositioned in rare nuclear threat to Russia
Advertisement Because nuclear submarine movements are among the Pentagon's most closely held tactical maneuvers, it will most likely prove impossible to know if Trump is truly repositioning the submarines or just trying to make a point. But in Trump's sudden and escalating confrontation with Russia over Ukraine, it is the first time he has referenced the US nuclear arsenal, much less threatened to reposition it. Trump said Thursday that he intends to impose new sanctions on Russia over its unwillingness to wind down its war in Ukraine, the latest step in his gradual shift toward a more antagonistic stance toward the Kremlin. Still, such public flexing of nuclear muscles is rare even for Trump, who last made explicit nuclear threats to Kim Jong Un of North Korea early in his first term in 2018. At that time, he said his 'nuclear button' was 'much bigger and more powerful' than Kim's. That exchange ultimately led to a diplomatic opening to Kim, three meetings between the two leaders, and a complete failure of the effort to get the North Korean leader to give up his nuclear arsenal, which is now larger than ever. Advertisement But Russia is a different case, and Trump has often talked about the fearsome power of nuclear weapons, something he contends he learned about from an uncle who was on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. So while Russian President Vladimir Putin has made threats about putting nuclear forces on alert during the opening days of the Ukraine war, and may have been preparing to use a tactical nuclear weapon in fall 2022 against a Ukrainian military base, the US has never responded. Medvedev is a good foil for Trump; he regularly issues threats against the United States but is essentially powerless. Trump has referred to Medvedev's martial-sounding statements several times in the past week. It was not clear what kind of nuclear submarines Trump was referencing. The US has nuclear-powered attack submarines that search for targets, but it also has far larger, nuclear-powered, and nuclear-armed submarines. Those don't need to be repositioned; they can reach targets thousands of miles away. Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon press secretary, referred all questions about Trump's statement to the White House. This article originally appeared in
CNBC
18 hours ago
- CNBC
Texas researcher faces deportation after being held for a week at San Francisco airport
A researcher at Texas A&M University flying home from abroad was detained for more than a week by immigration authorities at the San Francisco International Airport, sleeping in a chair and living off food sold in the airport, his family and attorneys said Thursday. It was unclear why Tae Heung "Will" Kim, who is a legal permanent resident with a green card, was detained July 21, his attorney Karl Krooth said at a news conference. Kim, who went to South Korea to attend his brother's wedding, is now in removal proceedings to be deported and is being held at an immigration detention facility in Arizona, Krooth said, adding that he has yet to talk to his client. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that any green card holder who has a drug offense is in violation of their legal status and can be detained. His attorneys said Kim was charged in 2011 with misdemeanor marijuana possession in Texas, where recreational use is illegal. His attorneys declined to discuss those charges Thursday. But one attorney told the Washington Post, which first reported on Kim's detention, that he fulfilled a community service requirement and successfully petitioned for nondisclosure to seal the offense from the public record. Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has launched an unprecedented campaign of immigration enforcement that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him. American citizens, legal permanent residents, visa holders and visitors have been stopped at airports and detained for days. Some have faced deportation for minor infractions. Kim, 40, has spent most of his life in the U.S., arriving at the age of 5. After helping out in his family's doll-manufacturing business following the death of his father, he recently entered a doctoral program at Texas A&M and is helping to research a vaccine for Lyme disease. His attorney said holding Kim at the airport denied him his right to due process. "The airport is not a detention facility. The airport is not in the immigration courtroom. And Customs and Border Protection officers are interrogators, they are not neutral arbiters," he said. Krooth said his client was moved between two small rooms in the daytime at the airport. "He was moved within what's called secondary inspection at least twice per day from one area where there were no windows," Krooth said. At night he was moved to another room where he slept in a chair, Krooth said. An airport spokesperson said in an email that "the airport is not notified when CBP denies entry to a passenger," referring inquiries to federal officials. His attorneys were not allowed access to Kim while he was at the airport and he was given only one phone call and periodic texts with his brother. There has been no communication with Kim since he's been transferred to Arizona, Krooth said. Kim's mother, Yehoon "Sharon" Lee, told reporters Thursday through an interpreter that her son has asthma and she worries about him getting proper medical care in detention. Lee told the Washington Post that she and her husband entered the U.S. on business visas in the 1980s, and by the time they became naturalized citizens, Kim was too old to get automatic citizenship.
NBC News
20 hours ago
- NBC News
A Texas researcher was held at an airport for over a week. Now he faces deportation.
SAN FRANCISCO — A researcher at Texas A&M University flying home from abroad was detained for more than a week by immigration authorities at the San Francisco International Airport, sleeping in a chair and living off food sold in the airport, his family and attorneys said Thursday. It was unclear why Tae Heung "Will" Kim, who is a legal permanent resident with a green card, was detained July 21, his attorney Karl Krooth said at a news conference. Kim, who went to South Korea to attend his brother's wedding, is now in removal proceedings to be deported and is being held at an immigration detention facility in Arizona, Krooth said, adding that he has yet to talk to his client. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that any green card holder who has a drug offense is in violation of their legal status and can be detained. His attorneys said Kim was charged in 2011 with misdemeanor marijuana possession in Texas, where recreational use is illegal. His attorneys declined to discuss those charges Thursday. But one attorney told the Washington Post, which first reported on Kim's detention, that he fulfilled a community service requirement and successfully petitioned for nondisclosure to seal the offense from the public record. Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has launched an unprecedented campaign of immigration enforcement that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him. American citizens, legal permanent residents, visa holders and visitors have been stopped at airports and detained for days. Some have faced deportation for minor infractions. Kim, 40, has spent most of his life in the U.S., arriving at the age of 5. After helping out in his family's doll-manufacturing business following the death of his father, he recently entered a doctoral program at Texas A&M and is helping to research a vaccine for Lyme disease. His attorney said holding Kim at the airport denied him his right to due process. "The airport is not a detention facility. The airport is not in the immigration courtroom. And Customs and Border Protection officers are interrogators, they are not neutral arbiters," he said. Krooth said his client was moved between two small rooms in the daytime at the airport. "He was moved within what's called secondary inspection at least twice per day from one area where there were no windows," Krooth said. At night he was moved to another room where he slept in a chair, Krooth said. An airport spokesperson said in an email that "the airport is not notified when CBP denies entry to a passenger," referring inquiries to federal officials. His attorneys were not allowed access and Kim while he was at the airport and he was given only one phone call and periodic texts with his brother. There has been no communication with Kim since he's been transferred to Arizona, Krooth said. Kim's mother, Yehoon "Sharon" Lee, told reporters Thursday through an interpreter that her son has asthma and she worries about him getting proper medical care in detention.
