Editorials
Tuesday, August 20, 1996
Hawaii is managing its own
welfare reform
CONGRESSIONAL approval of welfare reform is aimed at delegating to states the responsibility of providing for low-income families and creating work incentives. President Clinton has said he will sign the bill. In anticipation, Hawaii is off to a good start, having gained federal approval of a redesign of its own welfare program. The changes will reduce direct financial assistance but allow families to enter the work force without jeopardizing those payments.
The Hawaii program - PONO, for Pursuit of New Opportunities - will change how the state administers Aid to Families with Dependent Children. AFDC payments in Hawaii have been among the highest in the country, at $712 a month for a family of three. Under the plan, the monthly payment will be reduced to $569 in the third month of a family's eligibility, still more than four times that of Mississippi, which pays the lowest amount of assistance.
Under the present system, a family's assistance can be reduced dollar-for-dollar if a member performs part-time work. PONO will allow a member to work up to 7.5 hours a week to make up the difference in the reduced monthly check and more, without being docked. Part-time employment can mean a family could end up with a higher income than provided at the top of the welfare scale.
The new system, scheduled to begin in January, has all the ingredients prescribed by welfare reformers, including the threat of cutting off all benefits after five years. The question in Hawaii, though, is whether part-time and full-time jobs will be available for those trying to move from welfare to employment. State officials estimate that 14,000 positions are needed if all employable recipients decide to work.
Results will not be known for several years, and state officials may find a need to be flexible in the end. Children, those whom the program is supposed to protect, should not be thrust into poverty because of rigid requirements of well-meaning reform.
Vendors at parks
THE state has done what was needed to clear vendors of T-shirts and other merchandise hawkers out of Diamond Head Crater. Yet the vendors persist in selling their goods because the law seems to be unenforced. In fact, enforcement can result only from citizen complaints, which have been few.
No bumping the ump
THE umpires are always right - or at least it's not right to argue with them too vehemently. Fred Kuhaulua Sr., a Waianae High School assistant baseball coach, found that out the hard way when he bumped an ump with his chest during a heated dispute in a 1994 game on Kauai.
For his flagrant misconduct, the 43-year-old Seariders' pitching coach was sentenced to a weekend in jail and fined $1,000 for assault. It was tough but appropriate punishment.
Perot: He's baaaack
IT'S Ross Perot's party, and he'll run if he wants to. So this weekend, it was no big surprise when the eccentric multi-billionaire won the Reform Party's presidential nomination over Dick Lamm, a former three-term governor of Colorado, who had also sought the nod. Perot and his party are a farce, but provide the country much-needed comedic relief.
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Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor