Budget chairwomen get tough with governor
At the Legislature, all roads lead to the money committees — House Finance and Senate Ways and Means — chaired by Rep. Sylvia Luke and Sen. Jill Tokuda, respectively.
But if you come hat in hand, brace yourself. Gov. David Ige’s budget director, Wesley Machida, learned that lesson the hard way when he presented Ige’s budget to the powerful lawmakers.
Luke called Ige’s budget “borderline schizophrenic.” Tokuda was equally dismissive: “Are you providing us with a real budget?”
Luke also chastised Machida for the negative performance of the public employees pension fund. Maybe some people should be fired, she mused.
The Legislature opens on Jan. 18. You’ve been warned.
Storm clouds ahead for OHA, beneficiaries
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Anyone who thought there had been rough seas at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs up to this point had better batten down the hatches.
With Rowena Akana now chairing the board of trustees, the boat’s already rocking. The new leadership, which has criticized OHA’s “top-heavy” staff roster, is looking into the possibility of buying out the contract of the chief executive, Kamana‘opono Crabbe. For his part, Crabbe has said he will not “go gentle into that good night.”
Let the drama begin. Gains for the beneficiaries? We’ll have to see.
6 responses to “Budget chairwomen get tough with governor”
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Year after year the legislature, administration and the public enter into discourse about the budget without having the state’s most current Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (FY 2016 CAFR) published in a timely fashion. This is equivalent to a family planning on borrowing money from the bank to buy or renovate a house, purchase a new automobile, send the kids to costly schools, and go on an extended vacation without having the foggiest idea of how much money they have in their savings and checking accounts, or how much they already owe on their current mortgage, credit cards and to other creditors. If past performance is any sign of future outcome, the forthcoming legislative process will give the public yet another year of the same old Kabuki Theater played at the big square building with totally predictable endings leaving the state spending more than it makes and driving yet deeper in debt to the bond holders, and the public workers pension and post employment trust funds.
“YES…with reservations.”
The end result of EVERY request for more money to be wasted and tax increases in Hawaii.
Yes with reservations will be the result when kurk comes in asking for the permanent GET extension for rail.
Many think it is a slam dunk that the GET will be extended. I do not think so. I truly think Luke and Tokuda will be putting Caldwell in the hot seat. Our mayor said that tourists pay 30% of the GET but in fact pays 14.1%. These are the lies and propaganda our mayor continues to spout. He is not gonna fool these two women this time around.
They will extend it for 2 major reasons, even if they deny it.
1. The state gets the 10% skim.
2. Kurk will threaten to hammer Oahu with property tax increases if the GET is not made permanent. Luke and Tokuda will say that they don’t want to see property tax increases so they will vote yes with reservations after asking the mayor some “tough questions”.
I do not think the mayor has the authority to increase property taxes to pay for the construction of rail. Property taxes do pay for the operations of rail but the fare box must ante up 30% of the operating cost. The State should also collect what is prudent for the GET tax collection.