It’s official. The state Council on Revenues once again significantly lowered its revenue forecast for this fiscal year. Revenues would decline, the council says, by 9 percent, down from the 5 percent drop forecast in March. That’s a $180 million loss for the state.

It’s hardly a surprise. Rising unemployment, stalled growth and business closures across the nation have been the order of the day for months now. And the latest figures now show nearly 12 percent of U.S. homeowners are behind in their mortgage payments, with a growing percentage affecting traditional mortgage holders, creeping beyond the subprime loan debacle.
Still, news reports out of Washington show stimulus money has been slow to reach some of the hardest-hit states. So it’s all the more important that Hawaiçi be well-positioned to bring the cash flow into our struggling economy.
That’s certainly the case in Washington. We have a Hawaii-born president in the White House who has an affinity for the islands and an understanding of our complexities, and U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye is now chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.
What happens here at home is equally important. It’s imperative that state and county leaders work closely with private industry to effectively funnel precious federal funds to local projects, creating jobs to fuel our economy.
It’s time to kick the partisan politics to the curb. In the budget battle over how to spend federal education stabilization funds, while Democrat lawmakers managed to override the governor’s veto, education officials are still waiting for the governor to apply for those funds. And the clock is ticking.
“We need to ensure Hawaiçi is best positioned to receive as much of the stimulus dollars as we can get. We need to work together — the state, the counties and the private sector — we need check the egos at the door and leave our political differences at the door,” says Jennifer Sabas, spokeswoman for Sen. Inouye.
She’s right.
Cooperation is key, particularly when it comes to those competitive dollars, such as funds for renewable energy and broadband efforts. The state, to its credit, has been aggressively working on both those fronts.
Encouraging progress has also been made in other key areas, including transportation,where the state and the counties worked closely to identify $246 million in projects for federal funding and move them forward. And there’s more to come.
It’s important that economic recovery come in ways that transcend dollars and cents. It must include the restoration of hope and confidence in our economy.
It’s in tough times such as these that political leadership and courage are most needed. It’s up to our elected leaders to show taxpayers that they are indeed up to that task.