Editorials
Monday, October 12, 1998

Tourism Authority has
a big responsibility

WITH the long-awaited appointment of its 13 board members, the Hawaii Tourism Authority, created by the Legislature earlier this year, can begin operations. Its mission is to design and direct the future course of the tourism industry, the main bulwark of Hawaii's economy.

Although the appointments, made by the governor, are subject to confirmation by the Senate in the 1999 session, the board plans to meet later this month and elect a chairman. The law also calls for the hiring of an executive director. Other staff will be provided by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Except for two state department directors, board members are volunteers who will receive only travel expenses.

The Tourism Authority was created in response to a recommendation by Governor Cayetano's Economic Revitalization Task Force. It is intended to take the direction of tourism promotion out of politics. How well that will work isn't clear, but the idea is worthwhile.

Many of the 11 voting members of the authority's board are connected with the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Center. This should be no surprise because these are people who are both knowledgeable about tourism and are willing to serve.

One of the authority's jobs will be to draw up a marketing plan for tourism and contract with an organization to do the work. That organization won't necessarily be the HVCB, but chances are it will be. The composition of the authority's board -- several appointees who served or are serving on HVCB's board or its committees -- certainly increases those chances.

The big advantage the authority will have is a dedicated source of funding: an increased hotel room tax, which will rise to 7.25 percent from 6 percent on Jan. 1. This is expected to generate $60 million a year for the authority, twice as much as current state spending. The change also means that the tourism people won't have to perform the annual ritual of going to the Legislature to ask for funding.

The purpose of the new law is to put tourism promotion and development in the hands of the professionals, and to give them enough money to do the job right. Now it's up to the Tourism Authority to set the course for the state's biggest industry.

‘Fixing’ the election

CIVIC-MINDED individuals frustrated by the new ballot-counting system in the primary election will find adjustments at the polls in the upcoming general showdown. The state Office of Elections has announced changes to make voting a more pleasant experience. The improvements are of little consolation to candidates who lost close races in the primary, and whose challenges to the final tally were recently dismissed by the state Supreme Court.

The biggest change will be that individual voters won't be feeding their own completed ballots into the scanners at the end of the voting process. This was considered a fun part of the procedure but led to frustration and long lines at some precincts when many ballots were rejected. Even Governor Cayetano had his own ballot rejected because he clutched it a bit too tightly. In the general, voters will slip their ballots into secrecy sleeves and then hand them over to precinct workers, who have been trained in using the scanners.

Another difference in the general election is the electorate won't be confused by multiparty voting as in the primary, which resulted in cross-voting, spoiled ballots and people too embarrassed to vote again. A handful of candidates filed petitions with the Supreme Court, alleging that confusion over the new ballot and the voting procedure contributed to their losing their races. While the high court rejected their requests for a recount or runoff, the losers had good reason to gripe.

Global warming

THE issue of global warming has been clouded by uncertainty over whether the Earth is getting warmer and, if so, how much warmer. There is also disagreement over the cost of bringing the United States into compliance with the reduction in air pollution promised under the international agreement to combat global warming.

According to an analysis by the Energy Information Administration, gasoline and electricity prices may have to rise sharply for the U.S. to achieve the pollution cuts promised under the treaty signed in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. The cost of gasoline at the pump could increase by as much as 66 cents a gallon and electricity bills jump by more than half by 2010, the analysis says. U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) could decline between $77-$338 billion annually over 2008-2012 as a result of the agreement.

This contrasts with a White House estimate of only a $7-$12 billion annual GDP loss for the same period. The White House said the study was flawed, but Republican members of Congress said the report gave the strongest evidence to date that the cost of cutting global warming under the treaty is too high.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican whose House Science subcommittee requested the study, said, "I've suspected all along that the White House position on the Kyoto protocol is unrealistic and untenable and this EIA study confirms my suspicions." He added that the Clinton administration "cannot sugarcoat the harsh realities that it would inevitably bring to our economy and our way of life."

If the Energy Information Administration is right and the cost of dealing with global warming will indeed be very high, it doesn't make sense to go ahead with ultra-expensive measures to deal with the problem until we are convinced that the threat is real and the measures will be effective in correcting it. At this point, we aren't.

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Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited Partnership

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