By Keli‘i Akina
With a new governor and a new Legislature now in place, Hawaii’s leaders have the opportunity to make a bold statement for government transparency and accountability.
The only question is whether they have the political will to do so.
Given the various scandals that have rocked Hawaii in recent years — such as the mailbox conspiracy, which cast a shadow on the Honolulu Police Department, and the admission by two prominent legislators that they had accepted bribes — it is no surprise that Hawaii residents lack faith in the integrity of state and local government.
If corruption can thrive despite the existence of multiple oversight and ethics agencies, then we need something stronger. In other words, we need sunlight.
As the saying goes, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” so one important way to help restore Hawaii’s lack of trust in government is more sunlight — that is, more transparency in government.
Who can forget the fact that Hawaii was the only state to suspend its open records law during the pandemic?
At the time, government watchdog groups warned about the ramifications of then-Gov. David Ige’s anti-transparency order. But we have never explored what it revealed about the state’s attitude toward transparency in general: that transparency is an inconvenience, something that is an unnecessary part of government work, easily dispensed with in an emergency.
If that’s the position of the head of the state, it explains why it can be a struggle to get public records released.
As the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii and other public interest groups have learned firsthand, the success of an open-records request depends largely on the agency and people you contact. Some agencies are helpful and prompt in disclosing information. Some ignore you. And some send you six-figure estimates for your record search and copying.
Earlier this month, the Grassroot Institute was among two dozen community and media organizations that signed on to a letter to our new governor, Josh Green, asking him to “establish strong leadership supporting an informed electorate” via a series of executive orders to improve transparency.
The proposed orders included requiring a presumption of openness that discourages agencies from invoking exceptions to disclosure unless necessary, a change in the approach to record request fees, and guiding the state Office of Information Practices back to its intended role as a guardian of the public interest.
The governor’s initial response to the letter was positive, with a representative of his office promising the Institute that the executive branch will take transparency seriously and consider the requests in the letter.
I understand that transparency may not seem as urgent to the governor as Hawaii’s housing crisis, inflation, the economy or any number of other issues, but this issue should not be pushed to the back burner.
Gov. Green has an opportunity to make a strong statement for openness as his term begins. This will resonate through every state agency and go a long way toward improving the public’s trust in government.
Not only the governor needs to act. The Legislature can accomplish many of the same goals via laws that strengthen transparency.
Last year, it considered a bill that would prevent agencies from using high costs to discourage public record requests. It wasn’t passed, but this year it should be.
The Legislature should also stop any efforts to curb open records with new exemptions. Last year, it created a working group to study the possibility of a “deliberative process” exception to records requests. Given the opposition to such an exception from public interest groups, there is no place for such an exemption in an open and transparent Hawaii.
The governor and the Legislature can change the anti-transparency culture that has pervaded Hawaii government, but only if they make a strong declaration in favor of open records and sunshine.
Consider it part of our pandemic recovery plan. As a state, we aren’t going to be able to cure the bias towards secrecy without a strong dose of sunlight.
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Keli‘i Akina is president and CEO of Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.
Should We Lower Taxes?
The Hawaii State Tax Watch Doggie told me that he can convince me that tax cuts for everyone, such as some of the bold cuts that Governor Green is proposing, are not advisable for us today. (Actually, he can’t really talk, but he can type on my keyboard, and if I get in his way he’ll bite me on the schnozzola.)
“The only reason why tax cuts are being proposed is that we have a budget surplus. Surpluses aren’t forever. They’ll go away in a year or two.”
But the State has recurring revenue, namely taxes. If we only spend what we take in and no more, we won’t have to eat into the surplus. We have a bigger problem with working families being unable to make ends meet. Even the most recent census numbers show that we are losing people, and the national Tax Foundation has observed that low-tax states are where many people are going. What are we going to do if government spends more and there are fewer people to share the cost?
“But even you would admit we have current needs. Roads and bridges, for example. Our airports. Deferred maintenance at schools and universities. How are we supposed to fund those if we’re cutting taxes permanently?”
Maybe that’s a good argument for spending some of the surplus, to make up for disastrous planning decisions made in the past when we didn’t have money. But in any event we have a large number of people who can’t make ends meet, which shows us that something is very wrong with the system we have now.
“Shouldn’t all or a large part of this manna from heaven go to our hard-working state employees who have been chronically underpaid, our teachers for example? We have been asking them to tighten their belts for so many years now, and now we have some funds available to help make up for their past suffering.”
We’ve been asking most of our population to tighten their belts and put up with tax increases. Isn’t it time to give them broad relief as well? By the way, state employees are taxpayers too, so relief for all or most taxpayers should benefit them too.
“Look, we already give relief to our poorest residents. They have a GET exemption for food bought through the WIC program or other public assistance. And they have income tax credits, several different kinds. Are you seriously suggesting that we cut taxes on the wealthy, who clearly can afford to pay our current taxes?”
What I am suggesting is that relief be given to those between ‘our poorest residents’ and ‘the wealthy.’ Many of these folks are working two or three jobs and are barely getting by. I don’t think you can call those folks wealthy (although they might be considered that in other states where the cost of living is much lower). And, when it comes to thinking about those who ‘clearly can afford to pay our current taxes,’ you need to remember that when they are fed up with our tax and business environment, many of them are able to do something about it like buy a one-way plane ticket to the Midwest, Texas, Florida, or the Carolinas perhaps. Many of our local nonprofits and news media have been collecting stories about people who have done just that. Here’s a story from the Grassroot Institute, for example.
Well, after reading this, who do you think had the better of the argument? If you have an opinion on the issue, you might want to consider letting your legislators, such as your state representative, state senator, or county council member, know where you stand. They’re supposed to be working for us, by the way, not the other way around, so they should be listening to their constituents.