Editorials
Thursday, December 19, 1996
State welfare benefits
for legal immigrants
GOVERNOR Cayetano did the right thing by adding $7 million to his budget proposal to help pay welfare benefits for legal immigrants living in Hawaii who may be disqualified from federal programs next year. Congress' decision - approved by President Clinton - to deny assistance to non-citizens who are legal residents was a dreadful act of intolerance, victimizing innocent legal immigrants for the deeds of illegal immigrants. It was one of the harshest and most unfair parts of the new welfare reform law and should be eliminated in the next session.
The governor, fortunately, has a more enlightened view. His budget provides that most immigrants banned from the federal Supplemental Security Income program - an estimated 5,000 in Hawaii - will be eligible for the state aid program for the aged, blind and disabled.
The deputy director of the state Department of Human Services, Kate Stanley, explains that the administration believes the Constitution requires it "to apply benefits to citizens and legal immigrants alike."
It has always been understood that persons legally admitted to the United States were entitled to the same rights and benefits as citizens with the exception of the right to vote and hold public office. Even if the nation's leaders have reneged on that commitment, the governor fortunately has not.
Teen-age smoking
TEEN-AGERS in America continue to take up cigarette smoking at the alarming rate of 3 million a year, and stronger efforts are needed to combat this lethal trend. Last year's Legislature was derelict in failing to enact a bill to stiffen the fines for selling cigarettes to minors. They should correct that failure in the coming session. But a City Council proposal to turn teen-aged smokers into criminals should be rejected.
Lawmakers should focus their attention on cutting off minors' access to cigarettes with tougher laws banning sales and on educating children with information about the lifelong addiction and health hazards created by beginning the habit.
Auditor’s critiques
THE latest in the stream of reports from the office of the state auditor deal with two relatively new, high-visibility programs. One is QUEST, the state's alternative to Medicaid, serving recipients of general welfare assistance and the earlier State Health Insurance Program for low-income persons who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. The other is the Department of Education's A+ after-school program.
Of the two, QUEST seems to have the more serious problems. A+ has been a useful service for many parents who could not afford private after-school care.
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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