Posted on: Thursday, February 13, 2003
ISLAND VOICES
Ko Olina plan is good for all
By John DeSoto
Former City Council chairman
It is unfortunate that The Advertiser's editorial board cannot look at the big picture of the Ko Olina tax credit.
The board's most inexplicable statement is that a decision on the credit "is not about helping Wai'anae." It most definitely is. Having represented the Leeward Coast region on the City Council for 16 years, I have lived and breathed the neglect of the state and city.
Nowhere on this island can claim greater impacts and hardships than our coastline — our island's only landfills, the only industrial park, a major HECO power plant, decaying infrastructure, and a long-identified traffic problem that keeps growing without any plan to alleviate or resolve it.
The fact that The Advertiser would ask the question of "exactly what (would) a tax credit ... do to improve the situation" only means that it is ignoring the facts or failing to seek them out. The Ko Olina team has been open and upfront about its plans and potential future.
The Advertiser has reported on the potential of $700 million of construction, 10,000 construction jobs, 2,000 permanent jobs, and $186 million of tax revenues over 10 years. Additionally, imagine the number of cars that would no longer have to drive across our island to work in downtown and Waikiki.
The Advertiser argues that the build out at Ko Olina will continue "with or without the aquarium." Do you not remember how long that resort sat dormant, with one hotel, a golf course and one residential project? The resort sat quiet until the new owner group entered the scene in 1999. We cannot afford to sit through another period like that. We need economic stimulus now.
Letting our state's economy to putter along and our region continue to suffer, waiting perhaps decades for developments to become reality, is not feasible or acceptable today.
The editorial speaks of good public policy. Is it good public policy to allow a region, including the planned city of Kapolei, to languish and merely hope for a better future?
Our Convention Center was the spending of public money for Waikiki — although much denser than Ko Olina, it is a single, privately owned development. Yes, our state benefits from Waikiki's prosperity. The state can achieve the same result in West O'ahu — jobs, tax revenues and increased use of surrounding state lands.
Finally, The Advertiser urges lawmakers to understand who will profit, pay to operate, and be left holding the bag if the aquarium fails. Yet again, The Advertiser appears to be ignoring what has been reported: The Weinberg Foundation has agreed to help make this project become a reality. There are no state lands being used. There are no state expenditures or commitments. And the legislation requires that the state receive one-half of the aquarium's profit in 17 years.
It appears to me that those questions have been answered, and the state isn't risking a thing.
To me, this is an opportunity that we must not miss. At a minimum, our region deserves this opportunity.
Finally, I urge residents of West O'ahu to let The Advertiser know what new jobs, training and opportunity mean to you and your families. Apparently, our silence has been interpreted as a lack of caring about our region. This is our chance. Please don't let it slip by.
