Let's have a show of hands: Is there possibly anybody out there who didn't know this before the task force cogitated for two years and spent $1.7 million to arrive at its findings?

The study might have been worth more if the task force had identified solutions, but the 24 members led by Sen. Russell Kokubun didn't get much past pointing out the obvious problems.

The major action step they recommended was to create an ongoing sustainability council to oversee implementation of their nonplan.

How can an advisory panel achieve sustained action to address our pressing problems when the Legislature itself, which holds the real power, hasn't significantly advanced the ball?

Take public education, for example.

The Legislature had its big swing at fixing our schools with Act 51 in 2003, but hasn't been interested in revisiting the matter despite disappointing progress over the past five years in meeting the bill's objectives.

The Board of Education still hasn't enacted a real weighted-student spending formula that was the heart of Act 51, principals still haven't been empowered to nearly the extent envisioned and school-community councils have yet to have major impact in most districts.

Kokubun's task force is right to be concerned that after all the attention we've paid to our schools, the Department of Education projects that the best we can expect by 2019 is average grade-level proficiency in reading and math of less than 50 percent.

But this won't improve until the Legislature moves past studies and takes focused action with determined follow-up.

We've seen similar slow progress on affordable housing, energy independence, waste management and economic diversification from a Legislature that's better at timid half-measures than bold action; that's why lawmakers commissioned a sustainability study instead of a real action agenda.

The Legislature crippled its task force from the start by excluding the state administration from major participation, leading to a battle in which the Legislature had to override a veto by Gov. Linda Lingle to fund the effort.

This unproductive pattern of contention instead of cooperation between the two branches seems certain to persist as the Legislature continues to keep the administration away from the center of the action in its bill (SB 2833) to fund an ongoing sustainability council that would be run by the legislative auditor instead of the state planning office until the end of Lingle's term.

Lingle's policy adviser Linda Smith again criticized the Legislature Monday for spending $1.7 million on a study instead of tangible projects to solve problems, and hinted that funding for the new sustainability council may face another veto.

She likened sustainability studies to treading water and told senators, "We genuinely believe it is time for action, not councils and words."

The 2050 Sustainability Task Force deserves credit for good intentions and a noble effort to gather opinion from more than 10,000 Hawai'i residents on what our future should look like.

But one has to wonder how much further ahead we'd be if members had spent two years and $1.7 million pursuing workable solutions to our state's challenges instead of merely identifying the same old problems for the bazillionth time.

Their report is so full of generalities and platitudes that key findings could have been mostly written in a couple of weeks by a few creative minds before the task force held its first meeting.

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.