Small Business Hawaii | Volume 23 Number 3 | March 1998
Sam Slom is also a State Senator from the 8th District (Waialae Iki to Hawaii Kai)
and has a website at this URL: http://hotspotshawaii.com/sam/slom.html
Sam Slom is also a State Senator from the 8th District (Waialae Iki to Hawaii Kai)
and has a website at this URL: http://hotspotshawaii.com/sam/slom.html
In case you doubted SBH saying from the beginning the Economic Revitalization Task Force(ERTF) was a thinly guised reelection ploy for Governor Cayetano, the Guv's unilateral changing of the "inflexible" package of ERTF recommendations--not once but twice--should remove all doubt. He pulled the carpet out from under the big business dupes who believed tax increases while protecting the public union stranglehold on government could make a difference. There's no "plan;" the campaign committee just samples the level of public anger and comes up with a new recommendation du jour. Desperation, not reason, rules. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Does anybody get it? The Governor, Speaker Joe Souki and Senate President Norman Mizuguchi journeyed to San Fran last month to convince two major bond rating services -- Moody's and Standard & Poors's -- that the ERTF proposals were bold and would do the job. The bond analysts were unimpressed and said so. "Show us," they said. The Governor, in his oft-repeated statement (previously to Forbes, WSJ, Financial World, Investors' Business Daily, US News,) said, "they don't get it." What'll it take for him to get it? Gambling and cockfighting bills have re-emerged at the Legislature. The most imaginative bill would require game cocks to wear miniature boxing gloves on their talons. This sounds like a great economic jumpstart and a terrific new manufacturing industry for Hawaii. A real small business. (Get real!) Small business can take a lesson from the public librarians who showed their guts and determination for more than a year standing up for what they believed, even at the risk of their jobs. It paid off last month. The Board of Education was forced to fire their boss, State Librarian Bart Kane, (by a vote of 7-6). However, don't cry for Kane; the Governor already said he can find a place for him in his vast employment agency, thus increasing the size of the office even more. Department of Education chief, Herman Aizawa, quit before he got a BOE vote of non-confidence. He can now become a school principal and earn as much as previously without the responsibilities. Rumors abound that State Senator Mike McCartney could be named new education Chief since he announced he will not seek reelection this November. He worked for former DOE head Charles Toguchi, the Governor's top aide. The Shell-Texaco divestiture being forced in Hawaii by the state Attorney General Deputy Ted Clause (no relation to Santa) is unique; all other 49 states had no problem with the major marketing merger agreement. The FTC has been asked to intercede in behalf of the local retail gasoline dealers who would be adversely affected by the inappropriate action of the AG. Have you seen how often anti-change groups here use "Draconian" to describe any action that would change the status quo? How could the new $1.2 million UH Wahine Softball Stadium be constructed so that 90% of the fans couldn't see home plate? State no-bid contracts are the answer. The same architects, contractors and DAGS team that keeps our state incumbents humming keeps us from seeing the ball. They keep stealing home. Don't give up! Come down to YOUR State Capitol; there's still time to make a difference. The "Hawaii Tea Party" is March 27, 6-9 am.
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Editor: Sam Slom
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