Save it for a rainy, or really stormy, day

Nobody can read the recent announcement about rebounding tax revenues as anything but good news, and Gov. Neil Abercrombie has the right idea about what to do with the $306 million surplus.

The administration plans to give priority to replenishing hurricane relief and rainy day funds, as well as tending to unfunded liabilities in public employee health care and retirement funds.

Tourism, the main driver of Hawaii’s economy, is undeniably going gangbusters, fueling the tax recovery.

So there’s reason for some head-scratching over a new U.S. Conference of Mayors study listing Honolulu’s economy among the weakest, with no growth in 2011. Talk about mixed signals.

Just too, too much of a not-good thing

In the ongoing battle over who’s the good guy and who’s bad in the Kailua beach-business scuffle, sometimes police exercise their vote in the matter. This time they came down against the businessman, but for reasons other than his main business.

Bob Twogood, owner of Twogood Kayaks Hawaii, found that out last week. Demonstrators holding signs on Hamakua Drive, near his business, got wet and then saw red. The kayak vendor, out watering his trees, said he called police out of safety concerns for protesters in the street.

But he also allegedly turned the hose on a group of four of them. When the police arrived, they arrested Twogood.

Whatever might have been the appropriate course of action, given the heat of the conflict over banning businesses from the beach, this response wasn’t too good.