Abercrombie’s hot air alone won’t help ship of state’s sails

Gov. Neil Abercrombie would do himself and his constituents a favor if he declared a moratorium on grandiose speeches about his “New Day in Hawaii” program until he has some actual accomplishments to trumpet.

The governor played it to the rhetorical hilt last week with a webcast that was billed as a progress report on the “New Day” plan and had many of the trappings of a State of the State address.

But it was more a rehash of his campaign stump speech from last year on the problems facing the state, with few fresh specifics on how he’s addressing the challenges.

If Abercrombie hoped to provide assurances that he’s on top of the job, it had the opposite effect of reinforcing concerns that this administration is all talk and no action.

The governor did touch down on specifics a few times, such as when he took credit for getting state finances back in the black without continuing former Gov. Linda Lingle’s practice of delaying tax refunds.

That’s true as far as it goes, but unmentioned was that he did it mostly by draining the hurricane relief fund and rainy day fund — the same kind of borrowing from the future to balance the books without really changing anything.

Abercrombie fairly took credit for the initial success of his homelessness program, the restoration of hot water at Mayor Wright Housing and his appointment of a chief information officer, but these had been covered earlier in their own media events and broke no new ground.

On his core “New Day” promises of restructuring government around fresh priorities, creating jobs and a sustainable economy and investing in Hawaii’s people, he offered the same old generalities.

Abercrombie reframed the challenges facing Hawaii from a capsizing canoe to a “gathering storm” with five fronts: $22 billion in unfunded pension and medical benefits owed public workers; soaring health care costs; overreliance on outside energy and food; inadequate support for education and social services; and the prospect of huge federal funding cuts.

But there were few more details than he’s given in the past on his specific plans for meeting the challenges, and that’s where the public starts to become frustrated by the seemingly endless rhetoric.

Abercrombie said the threats surrounding Hawaii “are common foes. They know no special interest. There’s no political party involved in this. All the arguments and the accusations that we either have had or could have will drown in the overall destructive force of these threats.”

“These are threats we can’t run away from,” he declared.

And they are threats he can’t talk his way out of. People are tired of hearing what the problems are; they want to know what is being done about them.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.