BEN Cayetano is our fifth statehood governor in a wonderfully democratic racial assortment that has seen us elect two Caucasians, America's first governor of Japanese ethnicity, America's first Hawaiian-Chinese governor and America's first Filipino governor. Burns, Ariyoshi, Waihee
First of two articles
and Cayetano
Second of two articlesWill Cayetano be re-inaugurated on Dec. 7, or yield to our first woman, first Jew, and first neighbor islander? Linda Lingle would also be our first mayor elevated to the job and our first Republican elected since 1959, the statehood year.
I wrote last Thursday about Governors Poindexter, Stainback, Long, King and Quinn, our last five territorial governors who were appointed by presidents -- no Asians among them, all solidly acceptable to the business community. Quinn also became our first statehood governor.
When Jack Burns, a labor-supported Democrat, was elected in 1962, uncertainty about what he would do to business was so great he flew back to New York to reassure investors. Actually he was conservative financially, egalitarian otherwise.
He oversaw the break-up of Big Five dominance of the economy through interlocking directorships, increased the tax on idle property held for investment, provided more money for education, including the University of Hawaii, and supported an elected school board.
His chosen successor, George Ariyoshi (1974-86), was dubbed unexciting but carried the Burns goals forward. War veterans of Japanese ancestry wanted Ariyoshi to show more preference to them than to Caucasians, arguing that it was "their turn" after years of Caucasian dominance. He insisted that "we won't do what they did" and was proud of it. He was frugal financially.
John Waihee (1986-94) was a politician through and through. This led to both good things and bad. He took office in boom years when tax revenues were rising heftily without even a rate increase and came pretty near to spending it all. The government payroll ballooned by about 40 percent, the reality obscured by renting empty downtown Honolulu office space instead of building many new government buildings.
His predecessors had seemed to follow the rule of "take care of your friends, all else being equal." He dropped off the last four words.
For Hawaiians he did more than any leader since Prince Kuhio got the Hawaiian Homestead bill through Congress in 1921. He made whole the Hawaiian Homes land trust by replacing some 17,000 acres that had been taken out of it, pushed programs to compensate Hawaiians for inequities and helped develop the formula for paying ceded land revenues to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs that is still a major issue of litigation between OHA and the state.
Toward the end of Waihee's years tourism went into a slump. State revenue growth slowed dramatically.
Ben Cayetano, his successor, sounded an alarm soon after he took office four years ago, and began a process of trimming back government that has slowed its growth to just over 1 percent a year, but not stopped it.
CAYETANO had to face questions about why he was quiet about things in his eight years as Waihee's lieutenant governor, but experience has shown that those who want to succeed their bosses had best not challenge them.
Cayetano, a tough square-shooter, has had to buck money shortages and strong status quo pressures from the bureaucracy and from government unions that often intimidate the Legislature. They have kept him from doing all he would like to do.
If he has a second term he won't have to worry about re-election. Can he then be tougher still or would the public be better off with a new face in the office and a new broom trying to sweep clean? That, to me, is the key question we voters face Nov. 3.
A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.