Forbes says isles’ woes
By Rob Perez
self-created
Star-BulletinWhy can't Hawaii escape its six-year economic funk? It's mired in a "half-baked form of socialism."
Or so concludes Forbes magazine, which has a less-than-flattering story on Hawaii in the June 16 issue hitting newsstands this week.
The article, titled "The People's Republic of Hawaii" and written by Seth Lubove, says the islands' woes are mainly self-created.
"A union-backed majority in the state Legislature took advantage of a cyclical boom in the late 80s to load new taxes and costly mandates onto local businesses," Lubove writes. "The taxing and regulating has (sic) been a job-killer."
Businesses, the article notes, are failing at a record pace, residents are heavily overtaxed and Hawaii's brightest college graduates are fleeing for better opportunities elsewhere.
Lubove, who says he interviewed at least a dozen people during a three-day visit here in April, blames the powerful United Public Workers union and its "feared" president, Gary Rodrigues, for blocking state spending reforms.
The author, who says he didn't contact Rodrigues because his comments would have been predictable, describes Hawaii as a "semisocialist welfare state" run by an "oligarchic government and its union bosses."
Rodrigues pooh-poohed Lubove's assertions.
"It seems the writer is writing with no facts at all," the union leader said. "He just doesn't understand what's happening in Hawaii."
The article won't help the state attract new employers to the islands. It begins with a headline saying Hawaii is a nice place to visit but "you wouldn't want to do business there."
The portrayal goes downhill from there, ending on this note:
"At a time when even former socialist countries are going the free enterprise route, this small part of the U.S. remains mired in a half-baked form of socialism."
