Hawaii: Detroit With Palm Trees?
HONOLULU – Hawaii public schools are closed most Fridays, rats scurry across bananas in uninspected stores and there may not be enough money to run the next election…
Hawaii’s money troubles are creating a society more befitting a tropical backwater than a state celebrating its 50th anniversary and preparing to welcome President Barack Obama home for Christmas this week.
Hmm. Let me see. A presidential visit usual require additional security from local law enforcement. Look for some overtime costs to further unbalance the budget!
Hawaii now has the shortest school year in the nation after the state and teachers union agreed to shutter schools for 17 days a year, leaving 171,000 students without class on most Fridays. Negotiations to reopen them collapsed last week.
—Food establishments often go uninspected, a fact highlighted by an Internet video showing rats roaming freely across produce in a Honolulu Chinatown market. The state has just nine health inspectors on Oahu to handle nearly 6,000 markets and restaurants.
—The state Elections Office said it may not be able to afford a pending special election, which would leave half of the state’s population without representation in the U.S. House of Representatives until September 2010.
—Homelessness is on the rise as mental health, child abuse, welfare and daycare programs run short on cash.
And next year may be even worse because tax revenues continue to plunge with the economy.
Trouble in paradise. Search as you might, the two words you won’t see in this article about Hawaii’s social and financial collapse are “liberal” and Democrat”. It does talk obliquely about a “lack of leadership”. Maybe the author thought that those who largely constituted that leadership went without saying…
Cross Posted at Proof Positive
