It has been mentioned before here that Schutter's prophecy would come true earlier than expected. Times are continuing to prove the lawyer dead on accurate.
Schutter back then admitted his buddy was on the way to getting a job that no one would really want once all the numbers came in.
Those numbers are still landing on Cayetano's desk and as the country western song goes: "If it wasn't for bad luck, he'd have no luck at all."
With one hand, Cayetano is loosening the strings on state spending. Just slightly. The plan, however, doesn't seem to be much more than to do no harm to the defenseless in society. In other words, businesses and those with other sources of money are still being hammered, while Cayetano's administration is slowing or halting cuts in welfare and education.
No administration, however, will be able to cleanly distribute the cuts now looming because of Monday's decision by Circuit Judge Daniel Heely.
The decision might force the state to pay more than $170 million to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The money would go to make up for alleged deficiencies in the state's payments to OHA of 20 percent of the amount earned by the state on ceded land, as required by law.
As Cayetano said yesterday, the ruling would sweep away whatever surplus the state has managed to save.
It would cause the state to raise taxes or just cut whole scores of services.
Cayetano wisely noted that it would also pit Hawaiians against everyone else in the state.
"Hawaii wasn't just built by Hawaiians, it was built by many different ethnic groups," he said.
This week's court ruling is sure to be appealed and it may be delayed for another year. But its implications will color every policy in the Cayetano administration.
Hawaii's mix is fragile. The chances of an insult or slight growing into a racial incident exist, but with little of the explosive nature of mainland relations.
This, however, could change like a brush fire sweeping across a valley ridge, growing until it is sustained by the winds it creates.
Oddly enough, the Circuit Court appears to be testing the limits of its powers at just the moment when the state and the nation are embracing an attitude that less government is better government. Sometimes some long-range thinking is needed before rendering a judicial decision.
CAYETANO himself will find the next year even more precarious. His natural instinct to apply the "up by my own bootstraps" test common among all immigrants may be seen as racial antagonism, if not simple racism, by Hawaiian groups.
Back when former Gov. George Ariyoshi was negotiating with farmers and others in the Waiahole-Waikane land dispute, which resulted in the state finally purchasing the land, one of the administration's great fears was that a polarized population would lead to a race war.
Fears of such calamities should not be forgotten. Today the stakes are even higher and there is less to divvy up.
As it stands today, Cayetano's OHA dilemma is not an issue to run on in 1998, but careful handling can at least make it something he doesn't have to run away from.