A good lesson in curtailing government growth

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

Do not let it be said that I only criticize government officials. I also like to give credit where credit is due.

This week, a substantial amount of credit and praise is owed to the Honolulu Budget Committee, which made the fiscally responsible decision to ax most of the funding for the city’s Office of Economic Recovery.

You might remember that the OER spent several years and hundreds of millions of dollars not doing much to help the economy. Earlier this year, I wrote about an audit of the agency that called out its lack of progress and poor transparency.

Of course, there’s something inherently absurd about establishing a government program tasked with revitalizing the economy. The money poured into the OER would have been better spent filling potholes. Or in the pockets of taxpayers, which would have done more to boost the economy than any spending effort dreamed up by the OER staff.

It seems the Honolulu Budget Committee read that audit report and came to the only reasonable conclusion: It’s time to defund the OER.

The current draft of the Honolulu budget cuts about $1.8 million in funding for the OER, reducing its allocation from a $2.6 million request intended to support 24 positions to a more reasonable $840,404 intended to support only seven positions.

A few groups opposed the budget reduction, pointing to benefits such as the incidental translation assistance the OER was able to offer after the recent Kona low storms.

However, Councilmember Val Okimoto, chair of the Council's budget committee, correctly identified this as “a textbook example of ‘mission creep.’” She even told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser: “We are seeing a department that has shimmied through its legal mandates to become a secondary social service agency.”

Which is to say that Honolulu already funds social service agencies, making the OER’s efforts both redundant and off-mission.

Okimoto also disagreed that the OER was being gutted, calling it instead, “a long overdue fiscal right- sizing.” After pointing out that “meeting less than 40% of your core mission,” would call for serious consequences in most industries, she added: “It is time to prioritize performance over potential.”

Kudos to Councilmember Okimoto and the Council’s budget committee for putting an end to this blatant waste of taxpayer funds.

It might not seem like a lot of money to some people, but this is the kind of sound fiscal thinking that leads to responsible budgeting and a better economic outlook for Hawaii.

E hana kākou! (Lets work together!)