Unemployment fund needs cash, not optimism

Nobody likes a defeatist attitude. We all want the economic recovery to bear out the expectations of legislators: More and more of the islands’ unemployed will return to the workforce.

However, this assumes that it’s optimism, rather than politics, behind the decision to delay a tax bump to restore the drained unemployment insurance fund to healthier levels. This is an election year, after all.

Dwight Takamine, state labor director, is warning lawmakers that the one-year postponement may merely set up an even ghastlier unemployment tax increase the following year. Still, the majority is banking — literally — on projections that fewer jobless people means more will be working and refilling tax coffers without the intervention.

Fingers are crossed that we won’t have to pay the price for procrastination a year from now.

A lot of Hawaii at Philly flower show

Philadelphia is celebrating "Hawaii: Islands of Aloha" as the theme of the city’s International Flower Show, exhibiting a surf shack, a beach wedding, a 25-foot waterfall and a tribute to the Hawaiian goddess Pele.

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the show’s producer since 1829, promises a "culturally authentic" Hawaii. Forty vendors in the Hawaiian Village are from the islands and Hawaiian artisans will demonstrate various attractions unique to Hawaii. Orchids, anthurium and other flora will be displayed throughout. A facsimile ocean is formed by 1,500 glass cylinders filled with blue water.

More than 250,000 people are expected to visit the show, which began Sunday and runs through March 11 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The question is how many will decide to visit the real thing.