On July 22 the Star-Bulletin published a 16-page analysis of Hawaii's economic crisis. We asked our readers to give us their views about what needs to be done to help Hawaii emerge from its prolonged slump. Here's what you had to say.

Governor is in denial
about state downsizing

I found the Q&A with the governor especially enlightening but frightening.

For the first time I observed the highest-ranking elected state official in total denial of the hard facts. Rather than accepting responsibility and providing leadership, he tried to spread the blame to the counties, to the CEOs of business, to Forbes magazine, to foreign developers -- just about everyone but state government.

Particularly pathetic was when he said he had eliminated a few thousand government jobs. This just ain't so.

The few thousand jobs the state eliminated, and I would argue that the number is closer to 800, were all vacant positions. No warm body in the state government lost a single job.

Since these were vacant billets, no payroll was saved. Since the state hired 15,000 additional workers in Governor Waihee's two terms, is the reduction of 2,000 vacant positions really downsizing?

Pam Smith
Ewa Beach

Bureaucratic inertia
ruined Hawaii's success

Your report on this state's three-year reign as the most costly business environment in the United States contained a cogent explanation of this dismal state of affairs in a bureaucrat's quoted comment.

To Becky Winters, director of the Big Island's small business center, government-imposed costs merely evoke businessmen's excuses and, by implication, are not a state problem. If anyone can make it, no one should complain, Winters says. "I've got my job, to hell with everyone else," sums up her attitude.

This attitude typifies Hawaii's bureaucrats. With the exception of the inert functionaries in the District of Columbia's Third-World government, Hawaii's bureaucrats appear to be this nation's most lethargic and incompetent. The Regulated Industries Complaints Office seems especially dedicated to the principle of paper-shuffling inaction.

Without some alleviation of this deeply ingrained bureaucratic inertia and arrogance, Hawaii's economic future can be summed up in that hoary maxim, "Cheer up -- the worst is yet to come."

C.W. Griffin

Cut pay of public workers
just like in private sector

At Harvard's Advanced Management Program, where I was class president, we concluded in situations like ours to fire the CEO, unless he moved aggressively to manage the crisis.

I recommended that the pay of government employees, active and retired, be cut 5 percent for one year. In addition, the governor should immediately deep freeze all present and future personnel vacancies, allowing shifts of employees between departments and changes in job descriptions. Both recommendations have worked in the federal service.

Our CEO needs the courage to take action of this kind. He is favoring public employees over private employees, who do not have the protection of a chief executive officer.

Governor Cayetano should promptly appoint the first lady of Hawaii as his chief of staff for personnel.

E. Alvey Wright
Kailua

Leadership is the key
to getting out of doldrums

Your special report on the economic crisis of Hawaii was superb! We know the symptoms but are not willing to take the remedies needed to get well. Obviously, we do not have leaders who are capable of guiding us out of this situation.

The governor proposes Band-aid solutions to conditions that call for bold action. The Legislature is more concerned with protecting its special interests than the common good of Hawaii.

It's time to wake up. It's the economy, stupid!

A responsive government is a key component of a turnaround. Focus on priority issues both short- and long-term, such as developing high quality education at all levels, cutting the strangle of red tape, reforming the tax structure and voiding time-consuming, extraneous diversions.

Throw the rascals out of office if their agenda is not the well-being of Hawaii.

Tony Locascio

These three simple steps
can cut bureaucracy

What needs to be done to help Hawaii emerge from its prolonged slump? The recent Rolling Stones vs. Aloha Stadium bureaucracy brouhaha is an outstanding example of how difficult it is to do business in Hawaii.

This is the state that just can't seem to say yes. When it takes the intervention of the governor to get a no-brainer type of project rolling, something is clearly wrong.

The bureaucrats who staff and run all our state and county permitting agencies have to learn the following:

1) View every application -- whether for a license, a permit, you name it -- in a positive rather than a negative light, a "yes, let's do it" rather than a "no, it can't be done" attitude. This does not mean all ideas should be approved, but every idea should be given the benefit of positive perusal.

2) Get all applications returned ASAP, with a yes or no answer or a request for more information. Needless delays have cost and lost more business than any of us could imagine. Not having enough staff to "research" requests is not a good answer, especially in light of our dire economic straits.

3) Competing state and county agencies must learn to work with each other to reduce the amount of red tape that keeps a project from ever coming on line. This might even mean eliminating or paring back redundant departments.

If some of our bureaucrats can't seem to shape up, a way has to be found to (horrors!) fire them. Performance must count.

Mary Keith
Kailua

State failed to adapt
to changed economic world

Despite its dramatic title, "Hawaii's economic crisis," and while the state took a good share of the hits, I found your special economic report to be quite comprehensive and balanced.

Certainly when things are not going in the right direction, the natural tendency is to point fingers and assess blame. But as the editors put it: "Enough blame has been (already) passed around: legislators unsympathetic to business, unions with too much power, tax-exempt estates holding too much land, etc." I suspect DBEDT might be included in these et ceteras.

But on reading further, we find the essence of our problem. This is the story of a state whose economy has fundamentally changed, but whose people and institutions have largely failed to adapt.

All of us -- the administration, Legislature, counties, corporate and union leaders, chambers and community associations, small business and farm operators, public and private employees -- have to roll up our sleeves.

Make the best use of our resources and creativity, build on our many strengths and advantages. We did it before when we led all states in the growth of our income.

Seiji F. Naya
Director
State Department of Business, Economic
Development & Tourism

Union, Dems must save
endangered community

While I cannot say your special issue has no "silver lining," I hope that most readers can see it as just another chapter in your newspaper's campaign to lower costs to business people at the expense of ordinary workers, consumers and our sacred aina.

The "economic crisis" you headline is, after all, a continuation of the political propaganda begun by Governor Cayetano upon his inauguration. It is crucial that people who care about maintaining the unique Hawaiian way of life and what remains of our pristine environment see this ploy as a crisis of political proportions.

This campaign is being run by the same league of banking and tourism bosses who led us on the embarrassing (and arrogant) adventure called "Thumbs Up Hawaii."

Their goal is to capture even more power over the economy, while also taking the reins of our once-progressive political system. The only real change from the past is that now the old-style powerbrokers have been joined by a bold new consortium of social and religious conservatives, intent on turning back the clock on our local-style social democracy.

The oft-repudiated Hawaii Republican Party now sees its chances for power enhanced and enjoined by the advocates for a constitutional convention, along with the anti-gay opponents of democratic marriage rights.

With the support of at least one daily newspaper on Oahu, this political campaign stands a real chance of pulling the wool over the eyes of the public on their "day of decision" in November 1998.

If there is any good point to this sordid campaign, it lies in the possibility that the traditional supporters of progressive social legislation -- organized labor and the Hawaii Democratic Party -- may be awakened from their long slumber. They must reorganize for the interest of ordinary citizens who are the economy's backbone. Otherwise we will be subject to domination by those who think that what is bad for workers is good for our economy.

Ikaika Valdez
Pearl City

Governor needn't resort
to calling his critics names

Governor Ben Cayetano was quoted in your special report as saying, "(Forbes) only talked to people like Sam Slom...(who) has about zero power in the Legislature."

Gee, Governor, I'm hurt that you think I, as one of the only 25 elected state senators, has "zero power." However, I would remind the state's chief executive that "zero" is extremely important, and that without the zero, there would be no higher mathematics, engineering or computers.

I am secure in the knowledge that I represent the views of a majority of hard-working, tax-paying, job-creating citizens -- of both political parties -- who want a change in attitude and leadership as well as a response to the issues raised by Forbes and other important worldwide business and investment publications.

Failure to provide vision and leadership necessary to address the cause of our real and growing problems -- which are political, not economic -- by name-calling will not halt the exodus of Hawaii residents to cities clearly identified as business and investment friendly, or help make Hawaii work again.

I'll be glad to advise the governor's economic summit about concrete ideas to permit residents more disposable income and take-home pay. Just dial "0."

Sam Slom

Finger-pointing won't solve
any of our economic woes

I am bothered by your narrow focus and lack of historical perspective of Hawaii's economy. Obviously, it helps the political agenda of some to point to "big" government and the unions as the "reason" for the state's dismal performance relative to the rest of the country.

However, just a few years ago, Hawaii was regularly leading the nation in economic growth -- with the same unions and an even bigger state government.

It seems more reasonable that many of our problems are probably due to structural changes in economic conditions in Hawaii, the rest of the U.S. and the world. We should be looking for ways to help our institutions, public and private and finding ways to respond to the challenge, not pointing fingers.

Another part of the mantra is to exclaim about Hawaii's high business costs, as per the recent clamor over a national report that Hawaii's business costs lead the nation.

Curiously, there was hardly any comparable trumpeting over the report a few days later on the large number of stores at Ala Moana Center which are flagship operations for their respective chains.

For these operations, the pain of the highest business costs in the U.S. is probably eased by the pleasure of the highest sales volume. Obviously, it is profitability, not just costs, that is most critical.

Bob Stanfield

Economic analysis tinged
with slanted, anti-union bias

After reviewing your special report on the economy, I found it to be an example of slanted reporting that, upon examination, reveals how a major daily newspaper has allowed bias to infest its stories. Here are three examples of unfair reporting and editing:

A dramatic photo of HGEA picketers dominates page 8 and anchors the story, "Labor's clout." It's a great picture, but why was it selected? If the purpose of the picture was merely to illustrate labor's clout, a photo of a UHPA informational picket line would have done the job. That would have made sense because UHPA's John Radcliffe was quoted in the article.

In the same article, labor's attitude to resolving the state's economic problems is truly expressed by Radcliffe, the significance of which went over the reporter's head. He said, "Unions and business will need to work together if they hope to turn this economy around."

If HGEA Executive Director Russell K. Okata had been interviewed and included among the "labor leaders" referred to, he would have echoed Radcliffe's call for partnership. Partnership is such an important factor, it was even cited in the article, "California shakes recession's tight grip" (page 15), as having made a big difference in California's recovery.

In the article "Who's to blame? (page 5), the subhead states, "Labor, politicians and big business held fast to the status quo, failing to adapt to the tougher times." Although he blamed labor up front, the reporter inexcusably excluded labor leaders from the article. Instead, he quoted economics professor Jim Mak, Chamber of Commerce President Stanley Hong, economist David Ramsour, DBEDT Director Seiji Naya, Gov. Ben Cayetano and Sen. Sam Slom.

In summary, your special report is a flawed document rife with biased and journalistically dishonest reporting. However, I concede that maybe you did not want fair and balanced reporting to begin with. If your intentions were to favor the views of business and to minimize working people and their unions, then the basis for my comments -- that the Star-Bulletin is pledged to fair and honest journalism -- is wrong.

Randall T. Kusaka
Public Information Officer
HGEA-AFSCME

People will laugh at how
Hawaii destroyed itself

Congratulations on your revealing analysis of business problems in our unique isolated-island economy. My first impression of Hawaii, when I walked from the airport to Waikiki, was profound disappointment. Garish advertising signs with bright lights and other unnatural sights on automobile dealership lots and various businesses in a prime coastal area indicated a location-impaired approach to tourism. Correction has been greatly needed for a long time.

"Yucks" to the rip off of more of our beautiful seashore and mountain sky views by the rising Ala Moana Center, an example of warped values. People on the mainland's East Coast long have laughed at a very popular myth about American Indians "selling" Manhattan for $24 (certainly untrue). But what will people in the future say when they learn how we in Hawaii (truthfully) gave away our extremely important coastal blue sky for higher level merchandising?

Edward Arrigoni

Papers are to blame
for sorry status quo

Regarding your recent special edition on the utterly dismal condition of our state economy -- it's about time! We didn't get here overnight, though. We are now reaping the bitter fruit of years of bad state government.

So where was your newspaper while these evil seeds were being planted? Check the record and you will find that the Star-Bulletin and its sister monopoly newspaper, the Advertiser, have strolled along, hand in hand, with the status quo.

They rarely questioned state policy, endorsed those who have led us to this mess and ignored or suppressed dissenting voices.

In our country, a free press has the responsibility to question government policy from an independent standpoint. Our dailies have performed more like PR spin doctors for the status quo. In so doing, they have betrayed the public trust and are partly to blame for the sad state of our economy.

John S. Pritchett
(Via the Internet)

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