Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Saturday, July 8, 2000
Hawaii remains
on right path
Democrats know what's
By Gov. Ben Cayetano
wrong with Hawaii,
and we're fixing it
Special to the Star-BulletinREPUBLICAN state Rep. Galen Fox's June 24 Insight article, "What's wrong with Hawaii and Japan...and how to fix it," reveals why Hawaii's government continues to be dominated by Democrats.
According to Fox, both Hawaii's and Japan's economic problems are due to the difficulty they've experienced in reforming government. While Fox admits that, in the past, Hawaii has profited from its ties to Asia, he says it's time to follow our mainland sister states -- with an agenda set by business.
Where to start? Not surprisingly, Fox's answer is simple: Elect Republicans and everything will get better.
Let's talk about change. Change is always difficult.
When I was in Hong Kong two years ago, a newspaper headline read, "30,000 civil servants protest reform." Sound familiar?
Change is most difficult when it hits close to home. Republicans like Fox are quick to preach the wonders of privatizing state services. But when the state proposed privatizing the Ala Wai and Keehi small boat harbors, it hit too close to home.
Privatization champs like Fox and Sen. Sam Slom vehemently opposed our efforts -- a politically correct move on their parts to allow their upscale boat-owner constituents to continue to berth or live on their boats at dirt cheap mooring fees.
Fox fights the privatization of the Ala Wai; union leader Gary Rodrigues fights against privatizing the new prison. What's the difference?
Fox is quick to criticize the multiple state agencies created to promote high technology in Hawaii. We agree. The difference is we tried to consolidate the agencies but failed. Fox gave lip service, but a check of his voting record indicates Fox voted for the bills that created some of these very same agencies he complains are wasteful.The fact is, during the past six years, we've reduced the size of state government from 45,604 full-time positions to 44,132, even while adding nearly 2,000 positions to the Department of Education. If the DOE is excluded, state jobs dropped from 27,758 in 1994 to 24,868 in 1999.
We've kept the growth of state government under the rate of inflation and population growth. And we've become more efficient and productive.
The Cato Institute -- a respected conservative think tank that Republicans love to quote -- upgraded its Hawaii state government rating for fiscal policies and practices from a D+ in 1994 to a B+ by 1998.
Change? It's happening.
We gave the people of Hawaii one of the biggest state tax cuts in the nation --- $2 billion over six years. Compare that to Republican-controlled Michigan, which reduced taxes by the same amount over the same number of years with one glaring difference: Michigan has 10 million taxpayers, Hawaii only 1.2 million.
We don't get the national ballyhoo that Michigan got over its tax cuts but I think our taxpayers got a better deal.
In 1996, we reformed the state workers compensation law -- reducing employer workers compensation costs by an average of 40 percent. This has meant more than $100 million per year in savings for Hawaii businesses.
Tim Moore -- a staunch Republican, former chairman of the Small Business Regulatory Task Force and owner of the Old Lahaina Luau on Maui -- saw his annual workers compensation costs reduced from $90,000 to about $30,000. Fox should ask Tim Moore whether the changes to the workers compensation law have helped Hawaii businesses.
We've also reduced the cost of auto insurance and provided strategic tax incentives to help our core industries and expand new ones such as high technology, biotech and health care. Fox voted for all these changes.
We all agree that the quality of public education is key to Hawaii's future. We've made changes here as well.
We've increased the school year by seven days, increased teachers' salaries, launched Hawaii's first charter schools and changed the law to provide for the development of a stronger accountability system. This year we will begin moving to establish a performance-based professional development and compensation system for our educators -- a move agreed to by the teachers union.
Hawaii is a unique state with stronger bonds to Asia and the Pacific than to Europe. Nearly 70 percent of our residents trace their roots to the Asia-Pacific. More important than any economic benefit, though, is the way our relationship with the East has enriched us on a personal, cultural level.
Rather than abandoning these ties to that part of the world, as Fox seems to suggest, we should capitalize on them by looking for more creative ways to develop stronger business and cultural relationships with what still remains the world's fastest- and largest-growing economy.
Fox argues change will come to Hawaii only when we follow the U.S. mainland model of "business-labor-government combinations advancing a common agenda...set by business."
I disagree. Surely, there are some things we can learn from our sister states on the mainland, just as they can learn from us. But Hawaii has too much going for it to settle for so little.
The people of Hawaii are not interested in any agenda that litters the landscape with billboards, or casinos. Nor are they interested in emulating places like Houston, whose lack of zoning laws makes building anything a breeze.
We all know that it would be much easier to do business in Hawaii if we, like the rest of the nation, did not have a mandatory pre-paid health law. This kind of Hawaii would be possible only if Republicans take over state government and let business set the agenda.
The fact is that what's good for business isn't always what's good for Hawaii. Here, the people set the agenda -- through the ballot box.
A recent poll by the Star-Bulletin found that 66 percent of those polled identified more closely with Democrats while only 15 percent identified with Republicans.
Why? Here's a clue. Every year, hundreds of teams from schools across the nation vie in a competition called ThinkQuest Junior, a program that encourages children to take a meaningful interest in technology.
Of the five top platinum awards, two went to Hawaii schools. The top simulation award for the entire nation went to a team from Kapolei. Its theme? "Values: Making Choices for Life."
As the children of Kapolei show us, change should be pursued vigorously but not at the expense of our values. These kids provide all of us with reason to be very optimistic about Hawaii's future.
State Web Site
