State of the State speech mostly about playing nice

Call this the forgotten speech: The State of the State speech that was left behind.

From 2011’s year of self-described economic catastrophe transformed into 2012’s steady sailing with a following wind, Gov. Neil Abercrombie launched his second year in office with little memory of the past.

The state is in the middle of a two-year budget cycle, so it is understandable that this is not the year for big new stuff.

Still, Abercrombie’s rhetoric last year was cataclysmic, the state was not just drifting off-course — the ship of state was sinking faster then the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia.

Last year, the "most emotional trying subject we face" would be Medicaid cuts and a slashed budget for other state poverty programs.

"We must acknowledge, without flinching, the fact that the rising cost of health care also requires that we cut back on benefits provided to Medicaid patients," Abercrombie said one year ago.

Yesterday, Abercrombie saw us moving "steady, towards the shore." The Medicaid cuts have become as faceless as the problem of the homeless. A committee has been appointed to stew over the problem.

The state is moving on course, Abercrombie said in his 51-minute speech, because the public workers took pay cuts and reduced benefits.

"To all of you who came to work each day bearing the burden of cuts and slashes to your programs for the past three years, and to those of you who gave up furloughs because of your commitment to serving Hawaii’s people, I thank you.

"Mahalo plenty to each and every one of you," Abercrombie said.

If there was a spare "mahalo plenty" for the scores of businesses that saw their taxes rise, or the taxpayers who will soon start filling out tax forms without benefit of all those state deductions, Abercrombie did not drop that mahalo on the taxpaying masses.

If you work for state government, yesterday’s speech was all about you — but if you are in private business, you were mentioned tangentially, at best.

Private business would be pleased to know that Abercrombie is going ahead with his more than $1 billion state construction project. But, former Hawaii Govs. Linda Lingle and Ben Cayetano both had their billion-dollar building programs, too.

In fact, Abercrombie sounded as if he was channeling Republican Gov. Lingle as he repeatedly called for "fiscal discipline and continued discipline."

If private business was to perk up its ears at any of Abercrombie’s speech, it would probably be in the governor’s following through with the proposed 650-foot Pohukaina urban renewal project, which the less respectful at the state Capitol have already dubbed "Abercrombie Towers."

If Abercrombie can see some real movement in changing the blighted "Iwilei to Waikiki" corridor, it will be all to the good of private business.

There was a proposal to pop a laptop into the hands of each of our 170,000 public school students. Even a math casualty such as myself can multiple 170,000 by the cost of just a $500 iPad and know that the state is not going on an $85 million laptop-buying spending spree this year, so why did Abercrombie bring it up?

Finally, there was a serious recognition this year by Abercrombie that while Hawaii’s governor is powerful, the post is not without limits.

So this year’s speech is more about playing nice and less about direct leadership.

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