Hat tip to Big Island Video News for videotaping the entire recent Hawaii County Council coup meeting.It was very interesting to see how dysfunctional the council has turned out to be once again. However it is also very frustrating as these public servants should be working to better Hawaii County and not trying to do these selfish power grabs.
Big Island Video News also videotaped the recent Ane Keohokalole highway public hearing.Hopefully this road can be successfully fast tracked. However I still have concerns that the burials in or near the right of way may scuttle this project and the Hawaiian Island Burial Council will be yet again pegged as the fall guy just like what happened with Ali’i Parkway.
This is yet another example why we need to reduce our dependence on construction as one of the primary drivers for our island’s economy. Construction is too dependent how the overall global economy is doing. Thus as result it is too cyclical to be long term sustainable industry for Hawaii County.
This commentary by Lowell Kalapa is right on. His assertion that raising taxes in light of declining revenues won’t do much to reduce the budget deficit because the economy is still declining. Thus that doesn’t leave Governor Lingle with much options besides furloughing public workers. Which is a much better option than a mass layoff.
June 29th, 2009 at 8:26 PM
Thanks for bringing this to the forefront.
Big Island Video News rocks!