ISLAND VOICES
Hawai'i being held back by bureaucrats

By Sen. Fred Hemmings
Republican who represents the 25th Senate District (Kailua, Waimanalo, Portlock)

There is a hidden battle going on in state government. The outward appearance is that a new Republican governor will be dueling with the well-entrenched Democrat-controlled Legislature. Actually, the hidden battle is between the Legislature and new department heads on one side and the fourth branch of state government — the hidden bureaucracy — on the other.

Unlike elected officials, the bureaucracy seems immune to change. As a result, programs and whole departments may have far outlived their usefulness. This is best exemplified by the state's quarantine system.

Other jurisdictions that are rabies-free, such as England, Australia and New Zealand, have eliminated the need for putting vaccinated pets in quarantine. A few bureaucrats with vested interests in maintaining the status quo in Hawai'i's archaic quarantine system have misled the Legislature and the executive branch of government on the science and safety of proposed changes to eliminate quarantine. Bureaucrats want to change the current 30-day quarantine to five days to check and verify 15 minutes worth of paperwork that other jurisdictions do at the airport.

Interestingly, they propose to charge about $500 for it.

The battle between common-sense reform and sustaining needless bureaucracies rages throughout state government. An example is the stubborn Department of Education's failure to embrace decentralization while insisting on maintaining the status quo system of governance. It is all about maintaining power and funding.

With honest reform, public workers presently underutilized in dysfunctional programs can be redeployed. For instance, quarantine workers can be sent to the airports to intercept alien species invasion — a real problem. Centralized education bureaucrats can be sent to the districts and schools where the children and teachers need help.

To add insult to injury, many needless bureaucracies sustain themselves with notorious "special funds." Oftentimes this money is not accounted for by the legislative process.

If we truly have a "New Beginning," we must put aside the politics of the past and cooperate in restructuring the very foundation of state government. Government programs must serve the people who pay for them — the taxpayers of the state of Hawai'i — not the bureaucracies of state government.