•Prioritize job creation •Labor savings an obvious fix Prioritize job creation We can’t dillydally when unemployment on Kaua‘i is at 9.1 percent, as The Garden Island reported last Sunday. Every elected official at the state and county level needs to
•Prioritize job creation
•Labor savings an obvious fix
Prioritize job creation
We can’t dillydally when unemployment on Kaua‘i is at 9.1 percent, as The Garden Island reported last Sunday.
Every elected official at the state and county level needs to make economic recovery and job creation their number one goal. Legislative distractions that get in the way of this focus are hurting businesses and preventing unemployed residents from finding work.
Stimulus funds represent one avenue toward recovery. Of the $246 million Gov. Lingle received for transit projects in Hawai‘i, $24.4 million is being used to start shovel-ready highway and road projects on Kaua‘i. This is expected to create about 315 jobs in construction and related industries. These projects are in addition to the $1.8 billion capital improvement project plan unveiled by Lingle in December that is estimated to create 1,500 jobs statewide.
Even our long-term initiatives must have a job creation component. In addition to making headway in decreasing our dependence on foreign-imported oil and controlling energy costs for residents and businesses, the Hawai‘i Clean Energy Initiative is helping to create a thriving renewable energy sector with high-paying “green” jobs for our residents.
If our legislators’ goals are scattered, their actions will be of little use to residents struggling to make ends meet. To truly make a difference, we must recognize what our priorities are and work to achieve them. Right now, that is repairing our economy and creating jobs.
Laurie Yoshida , Governor’s liaison-Kaua‘i
Labor savings an obvious fix
The Garden Island’s Sunday editorial, “State should let counties keep their TAT revenues,” is absolutely correct.
As a former mayor, Gov. Linda Lingle understands that the two primary revenue sources for the counties are property taxes and the transient accommodation tax. That’s why the governor is strongly opposed to the Legislature’s attempt to withhold the counties’ share of the TAT.
While the editorial is also correct that the state has many other options to balance the budget and close an unprecedented $2 billion revenue shortfall, there is no realistic way to balance the budget without looking at the primary expense, which is labor.
As a point of fact, the state’s annual labor costs are approximately $3.6 billion, or 70 percent of the general fund operating budget.
When the economy was flourishing over the past four years and the state was enjoying a budget surplus as a result of prudent fiscal management, the government workforce shared in the prosperity. Through fair negotiations, the different union bargaining units received raises of between 16.5 to 29.6 percent over four years.
Now, with the state facing an historic $2 billion revenue shortfall, the governor is proposing approximately $300 million in labor savings over two years. This is reasonable, fair and responsible, and reflects the shared sacrifice that we all must make during these challenging economic times. It is the same kind of sacrifice that has already been made by workers in the private sector all across our state.
Before looking at labor savings, the Administration took proactive steps to restrict spending, freeze hiring, restructure debt and scale back programs, resulting in over $1 billion in savings. Lingle has also proposed hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue enhancements, including transferring special funds to the general fund and closing loopholes in tax credit laws as well as the use of federal stimulus funds to help close the revenue shortfall.
These meaningful budget actions, combined with labor savings would avoid having to undertake mass layoffs and general tax increases — both which would have a devastating effect on our economy and hinder our recovery by adding to the state’s 7.1 percent unemployment (10.1 percent for Kaua‘i) and further burdening Hawai‘i’s residents and businesses who are struggling to make ends meet.
The labor savings would also eliminate the need for the Legislature to withhold the TAT from the counties. For this reason, it would behoove the county mayors to join with Lingle in seeking shared, across-the-board labor savings for state and county employees.
Unfortunately, Democrat legislators are refusing to face reality and are ignoring this obvious and responsible solution. They are choosing instead to remain beholden to only one constituency — the public employee unions — at the expense of all the people of Hawai‘i and at the peril of our state’s economic recovery.
Georgina Kawamura, State director of Budget and Finance
