BY GENE WARD – The budget released today by the Abercrombie Administration is two months late and multi-million dollars short. The Abercrombie budget adds $500 million total spending on top of the estimated $700-$844 million budget gap.
The Governor’s proposal will require Hawai’i citizens, particularly our seniors to fork over more than $100 million, at a time when their families are struggling to make ends meet. In total his budget will increase taxes by over half a billion dollars in the next two years. He proposes these tax increases at the worst possible time when our economic recovery is still fragile.
We tend to forget that this governor is faced with a relatively small budget deficit when compared to the Lingle-Aiona Administration which had to close almost a $3 billion budget gap without increasing taxes on the public. The Abercrombie Administration is not making hard choices and continues to blame an administration that fared very well when compared to the other states on the mainland during the global economic crisis.
Gene Ward is the House Republican Caucus is Minority Leader