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VOLCANIC ASH |
The Legislature's Hawai'i 2050 Task Force on Sustainability, already tainted by pointless political partisanship, has further tarnished its credibility by raising the prospect of higher taxes in its first major report to the public.
The task force last week released the results of a poll it commissioned claiming a majority of Hawai'i residents were willing to pay more to clean the environment, preserve agricultural lands, improve schools, relieve traffic, limit growth and promote renewable energy.
There were numerous problems with the poll and the way it was presented:
Planning a future for Hawai'i that can sustain social well-being along with a clean environment and healthy economy is a worthy goal, but the way the Legislature has gone about it has left high potential for failure, just like the Hawai'i 2000 plan under the Ariyoshi administration.
Legislative Democrats started by creating an antagonistic relationship with Republican Gov. Linda Lingle instead of pursuing the more productive path of collaboration.
Lawmakers tried to keep control of the project by putting it under the direction of the legislative auditor, an office that is ill-equipped for the job, instead of the state planning office where it belongs.
The 25-member task force was stacked to include eight legislators, six of them Democrats, seven representatives from the four county administrations and only one representative from the Lingle administration, which has primary constitutional responsibility for managing this kind of planning.
Lingle was so disgusted when the panel sought more time and money this year to complete its work that she vetoed a bill providing an additional $850,000, complaining that the task force had already spent a similar amount and missed the deadline for its first report by more than a year.
She also expressed concern that involving the legislative auditor in a project far outside of its statutory responsibilities sidetracks the office from its principal function of keeping government honest by monitoring the efficiency and propriety of state spending.
The Legislature overrode Lingle's veto and supplied the money, but after provoking contention from the start instead of trying to get the governor on board, how much support do they expect from the Lingle administration in implementing the recommendations of the task force?
This could mean the work is effectively dead in the water for the remaining three years of her term, and task force members concede as much when they say they'll need to garner strong public support to compel the administration to enact the policies they propose.
There's little chance of achieving that level of community approval when the first words the public hears are about higher taxes.
David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.
