Spotlight Now: Gov. Josh Green and transportation director Ed Sniffen
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Gov. Josh Green joined this episode of “Spotlight Now.”
The governor covered a variety of topics, including how the devastating wildfires in California could impact Hawaii residents in an already inflated insurance industry.
“This is a this is a problem that’s in the hundreds of billions of dollars,” Green said. “It’s very likely that the wildfire in LA is going to cause so much damage. That’s going to be as big as the defense budget. So that’s how big this is.
“I was just talking to some of our military leaders. You have a $500 billion price tag, which will not be something that the insurance guys could cover, meaning the federal government will have to have a national plan,” Green added.
The governor says he’s been speaking with California Gov. Gavin Newsom about potentially housing some wildfire victims here in vacant hotel rooms, and pushed back on those who criticize this idea, saying that he needs to focus resources here at home.
“The purpose really is to care for people. I’m deeply resentful of anyone that says don’t care for others when they’re struggling or suffering like this. I’ve heard a couple comments like that. Believe me, when we had our wildfire, there were tens of thousands of Californians who sent donations and for us to be supported and helped,” he said.
Meanwhile state Department of Transportation director Ed Sniffen outlines the state’s plan for more red-light and speed-detection cameras, which will take effect in March.
“We’re expecting to see quite a bit of people breaking the law right now — if we’re looking at the numbers in the 10 intersections — between 15,000 to 20,000 speeders in the system. And this is over the five mile per hour minimum buffer that the Legislature put in into that bill,” he said.
“If you use Google Maps, it’ll tell you: red light camera ahead or speed camera ahead. So it’s on you,” Sniffen continued. “We’re going to tell you where these cameras are, and we’re going to tell you that we’re monitoring, and we’re going to tell you that when we start citing. So when you run those areas, that’s on you if you break the law.”
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