Will Big Island,
Maui go metro?

A move to have them
designated metropolitan aras
is under way in D.C.

By Pete Pichaske
Phillips News Service

WASHINGTON -- Maui and the Big Island, meet New York and Los Angeles.

The two Hawaii islands would join the nation's big cities as official metropolitan areas under a proposal being considered here in advance of the 2000 census.

The Hawaii congressional delegation, led by Rep. Patsy Mink (D, rural Oahu-neighbor islands), is pushing for a change in how the federal government defines Metropolitan Statistical Areas.

While seemingly obscure, the change has potentially dramatic ramifications for the dozen areas affected, including Maui and the Big Island. Metropolitan designation, while intended as purely a statistical measure, can raise an area's national visibility and spur economic development, according to experts in the field.

"There's no question, it's a real tool for drawing business," said Edward Spar, executive director of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics. "The first thing advertising agencies or planners look at is whether you're a metropolitan area. They almost draw a line under those areas.

"Being a metropolitan area bestows upon you a sense of urbaneness, if you will."

Based on the 1990 census, there are 277 metropolitan areas in the United States and Puerto Rico, including just one in Hawaii: Honolulu. To qualify, areas must have at least 100,000 residents and an urban core of at least 50,000.

As the federal government gears up for the 2000 census, a group of lawmakers here is asking the Office of Management Budget, which sets the criteria, to drop the urban core requirement. That would allow Maui and the Big Island, with no large cities but with populations of 117,000 and 138,000 respectively, to qualify.

"The proposed change is necessary to restore fairness to the MSA designation process," said Mink at a public hearing last week before a House subcommittee. She noted that 16 communities with populations of less than 100,000 people are now considered metropolitan areas.

Mink and the rest of the state's four-person congressional delegation also argued for the change in a letter to the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology.

What Maui, Big Isle say

Leaders on Maui and the Big Island appear less enthusiastic about the change.

"We realize it opens the doors to federal programs and to private companies doing research and wanting to expand, and in that sense, it's great," said Maui County spokesman Lloyd Yonenaka. "But we don't know what we might lose without the rural designation."

Maui officials are studying the proposal, he said.

Hawaii County Mayor Stephen Yamashiro said he was not familiar with the proposal and was unsure of its ramifications.

About 80 percent of the nation's residents live in metropolitan areas, and some federal agencies use the categories for determining eligibility and benefit levels for federal programs.

The Health Care Financing Administration, for example, partially bases Medicare payments for inpatient hospital services on whether a hospital is in a Metropolitan Statistical Area.

But the federal implications are minuscule compared to the implications for economic development, said Rep. Tim Holden, D-Pa., leader of the House members seeking a change.

"Fairness for communities to compete for growth and development depend heavily on the adoption of this standard," said Holden, who represents a county that would qualify as a metropolitan area under the proposed change.

"Advertising executives, marketing experts, manufacturers and individuals looking to locate retail stores begin their search and purchases with MSAs."

The designation "can often mean more money coming in," said Spar. For example, he said, a company looking to open a new plant might use a list of metropolitan areas as potential locations, not even bothering to look at unlisted areas.

"You could say it's a misuse of these designations, but so what? Everybody knows it's true," said Spar.

James Fitzsimmons, chief of the Population Distribution Branch of the Census Bureau, said the next couple of years will be spent researching and collecting public comments on the criteria. The Office of Management and Budget will then set the criteria a few months before the census.