There has been some rocky employment and real estate trends as far as Kauai is concerned.
For the a few years now, real estate on the garden island of Kauai (the northernmost island in the Hawaiian chain) has been somewhat uneven. Needless to say, this trend is similiar in many other regions of the United States where real estate and the economy overall is concerned.
Let’s face the facts, recessions are never fun.
In addition to all of this, Kauai is really a major golf hub, with lovely, picturesque resorts and houses stretching from Princeville in the northern section of the island to Poipu and Kalaheo on the south side.
The Makai and Prince courses are particularly stunning and are considered to be truly world class. Sadly, though, there is also trouble on kauai. Here as elsewhere, the Hawaii golf business in general and Kauai real estate in particular is in a type of cusp of time.
For instance, a recent research study has proven that this industry by itself is an employer for some twenty-thousand workers in the state. Many of these workers depend on golfers to go to their proshops and restaurants.
In my own humble and non-professional opinion, Kauai Real Estate as a whole should survive just fine in the long haul due to a relative influx of retired persons and a finite amount of land (and building permits, for that matter). But golf on Kauai and Hawaii is in a bit stickier situation as it faces rather stiff competition from other beautiful, lush and exotic localities around the world like Mexico, Australia and even the West indies. As an example, there has already been a noted and measurable downturn as
the Grand Slam Kauai (also known as the PGA of America) has not been replaced since its last tournament some two years ago (ouch). Despite all of this, Kauai real estate in general, with the possible exception of various specific commercial properties, will probably be alright over the long haul, it would seem to me.
I am about to embark on a comp trip to Chicago but I thought I would throw this article at you first, as it looks like there is more evidence that the economic and workers numbers in Hawaii are on somewhat of a downturn:
During this second half of 2008 the registration of new autos are down from the amount registered during the same period of 2007 by 18.5%. During this period in 2008 there have been 23,839 new vehicle registrations and during 2007 there were 29,249 new registrations applied for.
The smallest decline in auto sales was on Oahu with new registrations being 16,917, which is down from 20,027 during the same period in 2007 totaling a 15.5% decrease. Maui showed the larges decrease in 2008, with 2,768 registrations and during the same period in 2007 the registrations applied for were 3,750. This is a 26.2% decrease, which is the largest of the four major islands. In addition, workers comp filings have been up.
These statistics are according to the Hawaii Auto Outlook who has found this decrease to be from the rising price of gasoline, the unstable credit markets and unemployment to be factors as they effect workers outlook in the islands. By the way if you happen to live in Chicago and you are in need of some superlative Chicago workers comp attorney then I recommend the Law Firm of Dworkin & Maciariello. They are really some amazing and capable Chicago workers comp attorney and they not only service workers comp cases in the city of Chicago but also the surrounding localities as well.
This report when on to state that there was a decrease in sales of trucks and SUV’s with buyers changing to small or compact cars and a 15% rise in the sales of Hybrid autos during the first half of 2008.
These decreases and change in auto buyers choices of vehicles is expected to continue during 2009 without as drastic a decline in sales and its believed there might be an increase in auto sales in 2010.
July 16, 2007
California legal News
Filed under: Legal News, Regional news — reformingworkerscomp @ 9:16 pm Edit This
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June 27, 2007
Filed under: Workers Compensation, Regional news — reformingworkerscomp @ 5:54 pm Edit This
According to June 5 article reported in ‘The Californian’,
Workers comp reforms still need some work. Some serious work, it appears.
While even many skeptics have to admit that the reforms the “The Governator” achieved several years ago did indeed accomplish some good, fundamnetal cost reductions for California based firms, it is time to really analyze whether
or not these particular reforms are unfairly punishing injured employees and whether or not they are really fulfill their alleged aim to employers as well.
To give Arnie credit where credit is due, several years ago California’s rates were a whopping two times the national average, and high workers’ comp rates were simply dragging down virtually every firm (except for medical and legal ones).
Along with several other provisions, these particular reforms restricted an employee’s choice of physicians to those on an employer-mandated list and also, significantly, scaled back the number of visits, standardized benefits for each category of injuries to eliminate arbitrary reimbursement rates which were rampant
and also established a review panel which was meant to limit litigation levels.
And yet, paradoxically, these apparently well-meaning reforms may have tipped the scales too much in favor of the insurers at the relative expense of workers & employers. Even though California’s employers are paying less to insure their employees than they were initially, employers’ costs are still more than forty percent higher than the $2.30 per $100 in payroll they
were paying in 2000! As a matter of fact, California is still among the ten most expensive states for workers’ comp.
Adding insult to injury, (pun intended) payouts for severe injuries like losing a limb or an eye while working are very far below the national average.
All in all, workers compesation is still costing California’s employers more than the competitors in other states and yet all the while compensating injured employees less than elsewhere. Ouch, that hurts.
This sounds like a system that, despite various improvements several years ago, still is not really working too great for either the employers or their employees.
Filed under: Workers Compensation, Regional news, Uncategorized — reformingworkerscomp @ 9:20 pm Edit This
In news out of the NY state capital, New York State Workers Comp. Board Chair Donna Ferrara as well as Fraud Inspector General John Burgher recently announced the arrests of more than thirty Westchester County business owners on charges of workers compensation fraud.This was in fact the biggest single sweep of its kind since the formation of this office about ten years ago or so.The accused were reported to have falsely affirmed in affidavits submitted to the Workers Comp. Board that they did not have any workers. Under NY State law, business owners who have workers have to secure workers’ compensation insurance to cover workers injured on the job. This is clearly mandated in the law.
The arrests by the NY State Police in Hawthorne followed a ninety day Workers’ Compensation Board investigation which featured various record reviewss, on-site visits, interviews as well as video surveillance.
Meanwhile, in other workers comp related legal news, reported by the AP in New mexico,
a Workers compensation judge has resigned there following a sexual advance claim by an injured worker in a case he was ruling on.
Although the judge, one Chris Berkheimer, stated to the Albuquerque Journal in an article posted several days ago that the accusations are “not true and ridiculous” ,
one has to wonder why an innocent man would not fight such a horrendous charge.
Agreement was reached Tuesday in advance of a report by a P.I. into the claims, according to Van Cravens, a spokesperson for the Workers’ Compensation Administration.
“The best way for me to fight them (the allegations) and protect my family was to resign,” he was quoted as saying at that time.
The lawyer representing the injured worker said he considered Berkheimer’s resignation to be the appropriate thing to do in this particular situation.
June 20, 2007
California hit hard by Unemployment in certain regions
Filed under: Regional news, Uncategorized — reformingworkerscomp @ 11:24 pm Edit This
According to reputable and respected journalists George Avalos and Barbara E. Hernandez of the MEDIANEWS network, a two-year-old bill is about to become due for the San Francisco Bay Area as well as the rest of California in the form of job losses which have been triggered by the rather steep in the housing market, a recent forecast states.
Experience points to a lag time of two years between a peak in home-building activity and a pronounced slowdown, or even job losses, for industries whose fortunes are linked to the housing market, according to researchers with the UCLA Anderson Forecast. The economists studied four cycles involving housing slumps and the after-effects on the job market.
Job losses connected to the housing bust have already begun to come to the fore in some areas like the East Bay. Even more troubling is the fact that the early indicators seem to suggest that the Alameda-Contra Costa region is being hit quite a bit harder than the state of California, broadly speaking. If you need a qualified attorney in the Greater Southern California area by all means visit Los Angeles personal injury attorneys
Over the past year, the East Bay has lost some eighteen hundred or so jobs in the normally robust construction sector. This is a decline of almost three percent.
In the meantime, San Joaquin County has lost about eight hundred construction jobs, which is a reduction of just under five percent. And in the state as a whole, construction jobs have shrunk by some .7 percent during the year which ended in May.
And yet, the East Bay all by itself has been the hapless recipient of more than a quarter of all the construction positions which have been lost in the Golden State over that same time frame.
In particular, 1,200 positions have been lost in the credit intermediation industry, which also includes many high paying positions for both loan officers and mortgage agents.
University analysts have predicted that the slump in house sales may be finally beginning to abate in the state. Prices are staying flat in certain individual markets.”Price appreciation has settled in around zero for the Bay Area,” one analyst recently wrote.
In spring or summer 2005, building permits in California hit a peak and then began to slide, stated Ryan Ratcliff, an respected economist from the University of California.
“Two years later is right now,” Ratcliff said.
Meanwhile, Canada’s unemployment rate should decline to a record low next year, according to the OECD.
While that nation’s unemployment rate is expected to fall to a record low next year of six percent, according international economic think-tank
(the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), they also prrdict that general economic growth & job growth will outpace that in America both in the current year as well as the next.
