Expecting a distant recovery from today's economic abyss, Gov. Linda Lingle has proposed an extensive program of stimulating employment and clean energy. Her progressive method of rebound should encourage the Legislature's Democratic leadership to find common ground with the outgoing Republican governor.

The most immediate priority for legislators is to limit increases by companies for payments into the unemployment insurance fund, which have been estimated to rise tenfold. Like many other states, the Lingle administration realized last fall that the fund, which contained $430 million at the end of 2008, was running out because of the rise in joblessness. Legislators should heed the governor's call for enactment of legislation by mid-March to limit the increased payments.

In her State of the State address, Lingle called for tax credits designed to have an immediate effect of creating jobs and encouraging reduction of the state's dependence on foreign oil. Chief among those proposals would grant 10 percent tax credits for the first $500 million in construction and renovation of hotels and resorts in each of the next three years, which she said could create more than 23,000 jobs.

“;The cost of the credit will be more than offset by the economic activity generated,”; she said.

In addition, Lingle proposes an income tax credit through 2012 for businesses equal to the wages withheld by the employer for each new, full-time job filled by a resident who had been receiving jobless benefits.

Achieving 70 percent clean energy in the state by 2030 has been one of Lingle's most ambitious goals. She is proposing several initiatives, including a ban on construction of new power plants that burn fossil fuels, and a general excise tax exemption for renewable energy projects of at least 2 megawatts over a five-year period.

Other proposals by the governor in her final year are a rebate of general excise taxes on electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles and stations where their batteries can be charged, and making loans to homeowners and businesses to install clean energy systems.

Recognizing the importance of tourism from Asia, Lingle spent two weeks in China last November to promote tourism, and said she plans to return to Shanghai in June to celebrate Hawaii's sister-state relationship with Guangdong Province. Enhanced by direct flights between Beijing and Honolulu this fall, visitors from China should be a major player in Hawaii's tourist industry, along with Japan and Korea.

“;Among all the world's nations today,”; Lingle told legislators, “;nowhere is the pace of economic activity more breathtaking than in China.”;

Hawaii's next governor would be derelict in not following through on her attempts to capitalize on that potential while attempting to diversify the islands' economy.