EDITORIAL
School repairs budget close to irresponsible

State lawmakers, by and large, are patting themselves on the back for delivering a balanced budget under admittedly terrible conditions.

True, they kept the Act 221 high-tech tax program and the Hurricane Fund intact, and they restored some money previously cut from public schools and University of Hawai'i operations. Although they had to pirate some special funds (what else is new?), they did all this without substantially raising taxes.

But you can't fail to recognize a gaping flaw in the final product: a schools maintenance shortfall so severe that the maintenance and repairs backlog, which had been reduced from an egregious $600 million to $430 million, will be sent skyrocketing further into the red again.

The state Department of Accounting and General Services, the agency in charge of school repairs and maintenance, asked for $120 million a year over six years in an attempt to whittle away the backlog while keeping up with current R&M costs.

Instead, the Legislature earmarked just $35 million for fiscal 2004.

It's important lawmakers recognize this fiscal scrimping for the false economy it is. Assiduous preventive maintenance and prompt repair are not only the best ways to go for good education, but the cheapest ways to go.

It's bad enough that lawmakers work in air-conditioned comfort while they condemn kids to toil in crumbling squallor, but their miserliness is making those conditions ever more costly.

It's a crying shame.