Kauai job retraining needs are microcosm for state

It was the sort of audacious bluster that easily flows from Gov. Neil Abercrombie.

Back in May 2011, during the annual Governor’s Luncheon sponsored by the Kauai Chamber of Commerce, Abercrombie upped the promises for the island’s beleaguered economy.

"My goal on Kauai next year is that everybody is working," Abercrombie said. "If they’re not working on Kauai, it’s because they don’t want to work.

"I don’t want the excuse there isn’t work available," Abercrombie said, according to reports in The Garden Island newspaper.

Abercrombie then iced the deal with a vow that in just 18 months he would cut the island’s 8.5 percent unemployment rate in half.

So now, a little more than 18 months later, how well is Abercrombie doing?

According to federal labor statistics, Kauai has a 6.5 percent unemployment rate. And half of 8.5 is 4.25.

So the rate of unemployment is down, not by Abercrombie’s 50 percent, but closer to a 25 percent drop.

That’s good news, not great news. Kauai is rebounding, but Kauai is no job-pumping miracle.

Randy Francisco, Kauai Chamber of Commerce president, said back in 2011 that "it is the results that matter." So he was rather soberly waiting to see how Abercrombie’s promises of a bright financial future turned out.

Francisco seemed encouraged.

Indirectly, the money for state construction projects — $9 million for the airport, $11 million for a high school gym and $6 million for library improvements — have all helped, Francisco said, noting that new state plans will also help.

"Funding Kauai’s green jobs and its multiplier effect, for example: Solar panels on public schools, which reduces/saves the electric costs for taxpayers, which also creates jobs and adds to consumers’ purchasing power," Francisco said in an email interview.

Abercrombie has also announced that 15 Kauai public schools would have photovoltaic systems installed. On Oahu, Abercrombie and the public schools are putting solar on four high schools.

Abercrombie sees direct cash intervention as the best way to low unemployment figures. In an announcement Tuesday, the governor said that this year, his administration has released $885.8 million in construction funds.

Asked for comment, Abercrombie’s spokeswoman said that the plan "to encourage capital investment in public infrastucture is a good means to lowering unemployment," adding that the state is also encouraging people to buy Hawaii products and support the Hawaii film office.

Much admired by Abercrombie, the old federal Work Project Administration was actually born in 1938, the same year as Hawaii’s Democratic governor. It was designed to get America out of the Great Depression by providing jobs for those out of work.

At its peak, the WPA provided millions of jobless Americans with work, although critics said the government jobs were make-work projects that WPA actually stood for "We Piddle Around."

That would be an unfair characterization, but the problem with construction jobs is that when the bridge is built, the school reroofed or the road paved, the job is pau. Also, construction work favors men and everybody in Hawaii needs work.

So besides just dumping state money on Kauai, Francisco sees the state helping by workforce retraining and redirection.

"Retraining/redevelopment of the current workforce such as the Green Jobs Initiatives funded and passed on to the county and Kauai Community College have also provided new business start-ups," Francisco said.

"In 2011 and 2012, there was an increase in the number of enterprises related to this sector. Several new chamber members over the past two years are from this sector."

Someday, Francisco noted, Kauai and Hawaii will recover, but the state should be helping to grow those future jobs.

His suggestion for "investments in job training for the services sector such as Chinese, Korean and other new markets to Hawaii in business, language and culture training need to continue to be supported," is just the kind of state help we need.

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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.