Honolulu’s economic revitalization office has revitalized very little

by Keli'i Akina, Ph.D., President / CEO, Grassroot Institute of Hawaii 

It seems that Honolulu’s Office of Economic Revitalization is very good at spending money, but not particularly effective at revitalizing the county’s economy.

That’s not just my opinion. The Honolulu Office of the City Auditor released an audit earlier this month that paints a picture of an agency that has spent hundreds of millions of dollars without making progress on most of its objectives.

In a summary of the audit’s results, acting City Auditor Troy Shimasaki wrote that despite its creation more than five years ago, “OER has only recently begun to establish actual program implementation.” Instead, he noted, “OER’s priority was to create staffing capacity over economic recovery and revitalization.”

And it gets worse.

“There was a lack of transparency particularly with program budgetary information and reporting,” he continued. “Although the Honolulu City Council established OER via resolution in 2020, the agency did not report a budget in the Honolulu Operating Budget until [fiscal year] 2025.”

The Council’s resolution that established the OER provided funding for 20 full-time staff members and tasked the office with strengthening the economy through various programs focusing on agriculture, technology and innovation, workforce development, regenerative tourism and aiding immigrant and underserved communities.  

The auditor found, however, that OER has “accomplished or made measurable progress toward” only three of its eight responsibilities outlined in the resolution.

Ultimately, this should come as a shock to no one.

Despite evidence to the contrary, politicians continue to believe they can boost the economy through spending programs. While these programs are good for photo ops, they rarely do more than provide token assistance to a few lucky businesses.

Beyond that, such initiatives tend to become bureaucratic sinkholes, providing government jobs and draining taxpayer dollars without accomplishing anything of note.

I hope Honolulu lawmakers take this audit report seriously and move to dissolve the OER to stop wasting taxpayer money on yet another ineffective and unaccountable government agency. After all, what is the point of conducting an audit if you don’t put its findings to good use?

Our lawmakers continually talk about budget woes, but rarely do we see them make a real effort to find and cut wasteful spending. Here is a golden opportunity.

And the next time they want to strengthen the economy, they should instead focus on policies that really work — such as cutting taxes and rolling back regulations.

Those might not be as flashy as standing up a new government agency, but at least they will be effective.

E hana kākou! (Lets work together!)