The Sunday, Feb. 1, 2004 issue of ”’The Honolulu Advertiser”’ ran a story by ”’USA Today”’ headlined “Pittsburgh battling to avoid bankruptcy.”
One statement grabbed my attention. It read “Debt payments consume
nearly 20 percent of the budget — two to four times what fiscally
prudent cities pay.”
Now I remember being informed that the City of Honolulu had a Debt
Service above 17 percent and climbing.
How come the mayor and the City Council consider this fiscally responsible and prudent? Pittsburgh and ”’USA Today”’ certainly do not.
Are we to follow down the slippery slope that Pittsburgh is currently on?
”’Jack Schneider is chairman of the Board of Directors of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii and vice president of Small Business Hawaii. Reach him via email at:”’ mailto:jschn@lava.net
”’HawaiiReporter.com reports the real news, and prints all editorials submitted, even if they do not represent the viewpoint of the editors, as long as they are written clearly. Send editorials to”’ mailto:Malia@HawaiiReporter.com