After listening to people talk to me about our economic hard times and how many people are feeling the devastating effects of the slumping economy in Hilo, Hamakua and Waimea, this is my answer to “What are you going to do about it to help our families and friends?”

But the other question is “Why are jobs so important?”  The cornerstone of our democracy is a strong family.  A critical part of any strong family is a stable source of income.  A job helps a family grow and put down roots.  Families can bond, communicate and plan for the future based on a solid foundation.  Parents with stable jobs give children opportunities, stability, teach them values and allows them to dream of what they can become as adults.

Children coming from stable and healthy homes are better prepared to come to school to learn. Teachers spend less time disciplining and more quality time teaching.  Jobs and a strong economy leads to stronger communities and less crime, fewer broken families, less child and elderly abuse, fewer teen pregnancies.  Families can focus on their future instead of trying to cope with the constant stress about where to find the money to eat that day or how they can simply get to their jobs given the high cost of gas.

There are two fundamental parts of this problem.  The short term of what to do now and longer term reshaping of our future.  I would be honored if you would look over my plan.

1.  Short Term: Help up, not hand out.

I believe that people take pride in what they do and that they would rather support themselves and their families than take a government hand out.  These are my short terms solutions to keep people working so they can support their families instead of keeping them on the pride robbing cycle of Welfare:

·        Displaced Workers:  For anyone who has been laid off due to a business closure, natural disaster or on Welfare and disability: 

o       They have their name automatically included on the County and State Laborers List.  The Laborer’s list is for entry level, blue collar jobs.  It’s a starting point for those out of work.  They can get into the system and decide to move up into other skilled jobs.  Currently, the County and State lists are only open for a limited  period of time but under this part of my plan, the lists will always stay open for people to sign up.

o       Their name gets put into a pool from which private sector employment agencies can freely draw.  The State will pay a set fee to employment agencies as a partial offset for every person placed in a job, instead of having the total fee taken out of that employee’s paycheck.

o       They can receive a grant to attend a Community College for job training.  If they fail or drop out before getting a 2 year diploma or certificate, the grant is converted to a loan and payable over ten (10) years at 5% interest.

·        Tax Credits: 

o       Tax Credit for Employees for their cost of medical coverage with a cap of $15,000 per year.  For example, if an employee’s share of medical coverage under his or her employer’s plan, is $500.00 a month, then at the end of the year, they would get a credit of $6,000.

o       Tax credit for any Employer who hires someone on unemployment or Welfare up to 7.5% of wages for two (2) years.

o       Tax Credit for Employers for costs of providing employee benefits.

·        Suspend the General Excise Tax:

o       On gas and other fuels. 

o       On locally grown food, including agricultural supplies like feed, fertilizer and seed.

o       On construction and construction materials.

·        Give School Principals sole budget and contracting control for repair and maintenance, up to $200,000.00, which will allow them to hire local, licensed, contractors for repairs and maintenance.  These contracts would be exempt from Procurement laws while prohibiting favoritism.

Every solution starts with an idea and people build on that idea based on their experience and expertise.  My ideas are a starting point.  It would be easy to tell voters that “I know times are tough right now,” or “I feel your pain” or even, “That’s something we really need to take a careful look at.”   Those kinds of statements demonstrate a lack of vision and leadership.  We deserve more, we deserve answers, we need leaders with vision and leadership.  I would be honored to stand up for you and represent that long overdue change.  Coming soon, Part 2, my long term answers to our economic problems.

Please refer to “Bolstering economy in lean times will take vision” a Honolulu Advertiser editorial at:

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200806010100/OPINION01/806010310