ISLAND VOICES
Republican positions distorted

By Galen Fox is the state House
Republican leader.

Galen Fox is the state House Republican leader.

Let me point to some misrepresentations in your March 18 editorial covering the House Republican solution to Hawai'i's budget shortfall.

You state that using the Hurricane Relief Fund to balance the budget is necessary "painful logic." Yet your "painful logic" contradicts your assertion elsewhere that The Advertiser advocated "for years" that "state government must be downsized to fit the economy that must support it."

By raiding the Hurricane Relief Fund to balance the budget, you support a $100 million effort to keep state government growing, when government doesn't need to grow. That outcome truly is, in your own words, "horrible."

All we have to do is bring expenses in line with revenue. After all, we are talking about money not yet spent.

One might raise taxes to match expenses. We oppose that. Some advocate "sin taxes," but Hawai'i already has the nation's highest "sin taxes." New taxes only hurt the little guy — the hero whose spending is pulling us out of recession.

We can cut government costs by, as you write, identifying functions to be eliminated or privatized. But it takes two to tango, so please focus on those who, so far, have been unwilling to dance.

On elimination of programs, when we proposed to halt the raid on the hurricane fund, Democrats responded by listing all the "motherhood" programs that would go — the classic "don't take police off the beat" way to protect large budgets. You, we know, are wise to this trick.

We favor privatization. But when the governor proposed a privatized prison, his Senate rewrote the bill to qualify only UPW workers for "privatized" prisons, forcing the governor to veto his own measure.

We asked to combine state and county programs, but that takes cooperation our state thus far has failed to provide.

On attrition, we recommended half the vacant positions be eliminated, a reasonable 2000 (not your 3000) that allows us to spare teachers and others with skills needed now.

Attrition isn't something remarkable, unusual or "horrible," as you suggest. Obviously, the remaining employees' workload will increase. But jobs and pay raises are preserved.

We agree with your former position — advocating keeping government's expenses in line with revenue. And we advocate protecting the Hurricane Relief Fund for those who paid into it.