Voters to blame for budget crisis

Schools closing! State workers and teachers being furloughed! State services being cut! No big thing!

Members of the state Legislature voted themselves a pay raise and are now laying back while the cash rolls in and the public is suffering, and they could care less. A legislator works about four months a year and gets paid for 12, plus benefits—where can you get a job like that?

Sad part of this whole affair is that by election time next year, all will be forgotten and the same people who messed us over now will be re-elected.

Who is to blame? The public. You are the ones who elect them to office.

Teachers trying to do the right thing

This is in response to Kyle Olson's letter (”;Teachers putting themselves first,”; Star-Bulletin, Letters, Oct. 21): How dare you write about Hawaii's teachers lack of dedication! What makes you think that the teachers wanted to have fewer instructional days as well as 17 days of less pay?

Mr. Olson, are you aware that many schools are voting with the school board to take away their remaining professional development days to replace them with instructional days for their students? I am a teacher with seniority; if I wanted to be selfish then I would have elected for layoffs. However, in Hawaii we are family and think of the people with less seniority to avoid layoffs.

So please, don't tell Hawaii's teachers that they aren't trying to put education first—we're doing the best that we can during these tough financial times.

Rail is only stimulus program we have

It's about time the city started awarding construction contracts for the rail system. Our recession-wracked economy needs the jobs that rail construction will generate. Let's face it, rail is the only bright spot in this dismal economy. Tourism, our golden goose, has stopped laying the golden eggs that deliver paychecks and spending cash to families. As a result, we're all hurting whether you have been furloughed or not.

We need new jobs and new revenue to stop this slide. Rail construction is the only worthwhile economic stimulus program we have.