On the fourth Monday of January, the governor gave annual his State of the State speech, laying out his ideas on bolstering the economy and the need to building the state’s broadband infrastructure and digital resources.
No, I wasn’t referring to Gov. David Ige’s speech this week. I was looking at a news clipping about Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s first State of the State in January 2011. The main difference, apart from Ige’s necessary response to the Covid-19 pandemic, is that Abercrombie included more detailed proposals. Some proved to be extremely unpopular, but they were spelled out to see and evaluate.
Then there’s Gov. Ige’s centerpiece, Hawaii 2.0.
That’s why, in the wake of the pandemic, I am calling for the creation of a program of action to not just reboot but to upgrade our economy. To create a Hawai?i 2.0, if you will.
I have asked Senate President Kouchi and Speaker Saiki to work with me, as well as business, labor and community leaders, to develop this program of action for Hawai?i’s future.
I have reached out to the Hawai?i Business Roundtable, the Hawai?i Executive Conference, the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, and the Hawai?i Community Foundation to convene stakeholders and communities from across the state.
I have also sought the counsel of governors Ariyoshi, Waihee, Cayetano, Lingle and Abercrombie for their thoughts on economic recovery. I have asked all of them for recommendations by April, which will be folded into specific actions by the third quarter of this year.
Perhaps that sounds familiar. It did to me. For good reason.
Back in May 2020, Governor Ige “issued a proclamation today announcing the appointment of veteran business executive and community leader Alan M. Oshima to lead Hawai?i’s efforts to develop and implement a plan for economic and community stabilization, recovery and resiliency.”
This project was, we were told, going to bring together all the stakeholders to drive plans forward for a revitalized state economy. Right. Sort of a reboot. Like the Hawaii 2.0 idea.
Does it seem like we’re spinning our wheels?
High tech. Hawaii as a Pacific center, a Geneva of the Pacific. Diversified agriculture (Kohala Task Force, anyone?). Medical tourism. We’ve had no shortage of ideas that sounded good and quickly got bogged down, either mired in the real constraints imposed by of our mid-Pacific location and small population, or bogged down by cronyism, or highjacked by political considerations.
But we don’t evaluate well. Our state and local governments are reluctant to accept criticism, so have trouble learning from past failures. We get lulled by the rosy pictures painted by self-interested consultants advising on new initiatives, but when things don’t go as planned, we haven’t had the will to double back, determine what went wrong, and do things differently the next time around.
Maybe I’m just in a crummy mood, but this governor’s annual review doesn’t give me any hope that things are going to be different this time around.
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Whatever happened to that Oshima guy, anyway? Crickets since last April’s announcement.
Though I would never partake, at this point the ONLY viable option – if they want their precious taxes – state government has is to open up GAMBLING (not “gaming”. Let’s call it what it is). Or a lottery.
The arguments about societal and moral decay is invalid because we already have societal/moral decay. Is it an extra “tax” on the poor since they will disproportionately play? What about GET on food and meds then?? That’s an unfair tax on the poor as well.
It’s clear that Ige is basically killing time until his term is up with nothing of substance to offer citizens of this state. Once tourism opens up back to the old levels (yes, that is what will happen with our unimaginative government despite lip service for “sustainable” and “smart” tourism) the TATs will roll in as well as extra monies from GAMBLING. Ige might even go down in history as making the smartest move amongst all the recent governors!
Meanwhile, the Blangiardi administration is also shaping up as another big nothing burger. And after all that talk about leadership…
Maybe there aren’t any brilliant solutions, and our future is that of many Mainland states like those in the Midwest with aging populations who send their smart kids to the big cities and have little hope of developing alternatives to the mature industries that employ the bulk of their workforce. Our situation is made worse by our susceptibility to the coastal flooding and erosion, drought, and high energy storms expected in the future due to climate change. Becoming expert on how we can prepare ourselves for these threats by better protecting, adapting, and relocating our most vulnerable homes, infrastructure, and businesses could be our comparative advantage. Recovering from the pandemic and rebuilding our economy is the obvious focus for the immediate future, but building resilience could be a smart way to transform our economy
During Governor Ben Cayeteano’s administration, I recall the creation of the Manoa Innovation Center. I believe it was an effort to get Hawaii away from a tourism dependent economy. Where is it now? Did it die a quiet death?
Some of my friends too charge of their own personal “economies” by investing heavily in companies such as Amazon, Google, etc. I believe they did quite well and they told me that diversification of their stock holdings was key.
Don’t put your eggs into one basket.
The State of Hawaii may not be a participant in global economic development by digital broadband internet services because the Time Zone difference can be a day behind other countries.
Statuary Standing ovation.
When I arrived here in 1968,Mayor Blaisdell was talking about a rail system,and diversifying Hawaii’s economy. Nothing has changed.
I READ Ira Rohter’s “A Green Hawaii” and I’m familiar with the libertarian Grassroot Institute. Somewhere in the middle is Paul Brewbaker and the late Leroy Laney. Other notable names are Carl Bonham and Byron Ganges.
As this post mentions, including reader comments, there has been no shortage of big ideas over the years to “rescue” Hawaii, or “transform” it, etc. And quite honestly, all of them sound(ed) very good, minus the current and costly rail boondoggle.
Two big ideas that stand out to me and worth pursuing are legalized gambling (statewide lottery, casinos, card rooms), and embrace of all things High Tech. (Evidently Oracle owner Larry Ellison is able to run his company from the comfort of Lanai). As we have all heard, the pandemic is forcing hi-tech companies to re-think their business models and reliance on Silicon Valley.
Finally, where do University of Hawaii business and economic leaders fit in? And where are they?
I could be wrong, but when it comes to social policies, UH social scientists are often the first group to be invited to the legislature to provide testimony.
If there was ever a time for the combined business and economic brain power of UH to speak up and offer solutions to help rescue Hawaii’s economy it would be now. Otherwise, why spend millions on a research university in the first place?
All right, that is my two cents. Let the circular firing squad begin.
If Larry Ellison is running Oracle from Lana’i, that means he should be paying state income tax here as well, at least on his earnings from Oracle while he’s working there.
And if he can do that, and he pays his state income taxes, that sets a good precedent for having others bring their jobs here, especially the local diaspora.