HAWAII'S BANANA REPUBLIC GOVERNMENT:
TOXIC WASTE  FLOODS STREETS,
CONTAMINATES BEACHES, AND FLOWS
THROUGH HAWAII'S DEMOCRAT-RUN,
NEGLECTFUL, SELF-SERVING
COUNTY AND STATE GOVERNMENTS


 
"The spill would not have happened.  It never should have happened.  We knew the storm was coming.  That is purely our fault."   This rare admission of responsibility for the City's dumping of 500,000 gallons of sewage into the ocean  just came from Democrat mayor Kirk Caldwell's top bureaucrat Lori Kahikina, Environmental Services Director, in the wake of SewageGate , the scandalous mismanagement of Honolulu's sewer system which will negatively impact Hawaii for years to come.  A supposed 'breakdown in communication' between City departments knowingly allowed a pumping station to be 'offline' during the annual May through November hurricane season.

Why should anyone be surprised that Hawaii's overtaxation would lead to disappointment?   Potholes .  Overheated  classrooms .   Dilapidated public restrooms .   Congested roads .   Dead park grass .   Broken water mains .   Rivers of raw sewage .   The list of horrors is unending .  And YOU are paying for every bit of it , large and small . . . right down to the most toxic parts per million .  But the money isn't going where you think it's been going.  Long before even one penny is spent on infrastructure, Hawaii's government budget is devoured by the cost of paying government employees to sit around.  In fact, labor costs accounted for about 70 percent of Hawaii's state government spending .  That leaves very little money left over for actual maintenance and capital improvement projects; which is why our state and county infrastructure gets increasingly worse each year.

Is there a political solution?  Not yet.  The main reason Hawaii voters routinely re-elect Democrats is because Hawaii residents mistakenly assume that Hawaii's crumbling, neglected, substandard  infrastructure has nothing to do with who they vote for.  They presume that bad roads, bad schools and the like are non -political, non -partisan issues which are completely unrelated to the nice man or woman who signwaves for reelection in their neighborhood every two or four years.   Yet in actuality, there's almost nothing MORE partisan than water, sewer, roads, parks, public school facilities, and the rest of our tax funded infrastructure.  That's where the big, big money is that Democrats and their allies feed off year after year.  It's also where the bait and switch takes place, since you're paying for solutions but really getting perpetually unsolved problems .

Tangible infrastructure, along with poverty assistance, is where the public thinks its money is going with every deducted biweekly paycheck, every property tax payment, every GET payment for every product and every service.  The sad reality is that the overwhelming majority of dollars from our taxes are not fixing what needs fixing .  Instead, your hard-earned dollars are being paid out to a bunch of lazy, Netflix-watching government payroll bloaters at our county and state governments whose cushy  jobs will be perfectly safe for generations -- even if every reported statistic reveals that government is doing a terribly poor job at the very tasks we the people have assigned to the public sector .

In 1954, Democrats took over Hawaii politics and governance in a single 'revolutionary' election five years before Hawaii voted for and received statehood.  For more than sixty years since then, they've had the chance to get it right .  But 'getting it right' was never their intention, so we are far, far, far from any utopia.  Instead of a well-planned, well-maintained infrastructure, we endure the harsh reality of Democrats using your money to pay off every special interest group necessary for them to retain power at the expense of doing the work and getting the results we expect from them.  This deliberate diversion of funds costs you immeasurably through wasted time in needless gridlock , busted tires , higher taxes, higher prices and a lower quality of life.


The most powerful of the Democrat-aligned groups receiving perennial payoffs are government employees who have consolidated their power through several public worker unions including the Hawaii Government Employees Union (HGEA).  Unions like the HGEA call the shots at the massive overpaid and inefficient bureaucracies throughout Hawaii's dysfunctional department, agencies, and programs.  Ironically in light of current events, the HGEA was founded by government employees at the anything-but-nonpartisan Board of Water Supply .   These same proud, unionized employees are responsible for a crumbling system of underground islandwide plumbing which breaks almost daily somewhere on the island of Oahu .  You see, they're proud enough to unionize.  Proud enough to demand endless pay increases and benefits.  Proud enough to pressure politicians to divert monies from buying new pipes to padding their paychecks instead.    But they're not proud enough to guarantee that our infrastructure is sound and that taxpayers really get their money's worth .

Over at Democrat Caldwell's Department of Environmental Services ( those are the folks who bill you for Oahu's sewer system on the more expensive half of your water bill ), these 'public servants' act like they were the only folks in the state who were ignorant of the coming storm named "Kilo".  As a result of their indifference to the plight of taxpayers , their incompetence and narcissism led directly to last week's nationally publicized closure of all the beaches where tourists on their dream vacation and news reporters eager for a big story were happy to tell the world about swimming with raw sewage at closed beaches in Kakaako , Waikiki and Ala Moana .  Mayor Caldwell's Democrat buddies at yet another City department, Design & Construction , never bothered to put hurricane season on their calendar either.  So they didn't get around to telling their construction vendor to make sure the pumping station was up and running.  You can bet the farm, however, that they DID remember to take their generous vacation days, sick days, personal days, bad weather days, and undeserved pay raises while instinctively forgetting to put the taxpayer first.

In the wake of the overflowing raw sewage, the impact to public health, the impact to Hawaii's #1 industry of tourism, the impact to our overall economy, the preventable cost of the expensive cleanup (e.g. all that overtime pay), what are the chances that all those Democrats who are responsible will take a pay cut to make up for their screw ups?  Do you think even one of these bureaucrats will actually be fired over this?  Of course not, on both counts.  Here in Hawaii, we let them get away with it, year after year after decade, because we don't know who to blame.  These bumbling bureaucrats actually announced that they plan to hold a meeting. ("We have a huge meeting tomorrow with the two department heads and the chiefs on how can we improve communication because this never should have happened.")  And the news media publicly urged the bureaucrats not to let it happen again ("Let's hope no other snafus compound problems for Oahu's notoriously deteriorated sewage system.").  Big deal.  Nothing will change while Democrats feed at the trough with the protection of their media buddies.


That's right, the local news media are proven puppets of the Democrat machine.  With their chummy relationship, reporters, anchors and editors are NOT going to remind voters that a succession of Democrat mayors and council members shortchanged the sewage system for decades.  The Star-Advertiser is NOT going to remind voters that lawsuits by the Environmental Protection Agency (yes, the ultra-liberal EPA) had to be brought to force Democrats to address Oahu's neglected sewer system, since Democrats spent decades diverting monies from needed improvements to fund endless pay raises, kickbacks, bonuses, sweethearts deals and just about anything except increasing the capacity of our antiquated sewage system.  Civil Beat is not going to call out Democrats and 'beat' them over the head for sticking it to Oahu residents for $3.5 billion in improvements over the next 25 years as a result of the consent decree with the EPA , not to mention that $1.6 million fine paid by taxpayers.  The on-camera gangs at Hawaii News Now, KITV and KHON are NOT going to explain how Democrats have forced residents to pay a gigantic increase in their monthly charges for sewer service because Democrats Mufi, Caldwell, and their allies like the HGEA refused to cut waste, fraud and abuse at the City, let alone all those generous raises and perks.  And nobody anywhere in the news media is going to tell their viewers and readers that the same Democrats running City government during last week's sewage spill of 500,000 gallons are the same ones who were running things during 2006's spill of 50 million gallons into the Ala Wai Canal.


As seen in last week's online Star-Advertiser survey, folks likely understand that our problems are preventable by better governance.  But, unfortunately, as evidenced by decades of election results, they don't understand that Hawaii's ruling Democrats are to blame.   Only a determined, active, principled and well-organized Hawaii Republican Party can make the case , all year long , with canvassing at the precinct level supported by advertising at the state level.

A weak, neutral , silent, and poorly-run Hawaii Republican Party prevents ANY and ALL conservative policy reforms from EVER being enacted.  Making matters worse, having liberal Republican party leaders pretend to speak for and act on behalf of Hawaii's real Republicans makes a mockery of our agenda, our positions, our principles and our values.

The only way to turn the pipe dream of a Republican Majority into a reality is to have HRP run by conservatives who work to spread our message 24/7/365 until a majority of voters and taxpayers in the islands agree with us and they choose to fire the Democrats.

That's why HIRA exists.  To light a fire underneath the Hawaii Republican Party and to replace the liberals who've hijacked our party with actual conservative Republicans who are prepared to fight.

The values and positions on issues couldn't be clearer:



Kailua businessman Gary Weller recently crystallized the point perfectly:  " Vote these clowns out, and hold their replacements accountable for delivering results ."  That's why HIRA invites you to join us.  If you want to fight to get your money's worth from our government, then the Hawaii Republican Assembly is where you belong.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR:  Learn more at HIRA's 2015 West Oahu Roadshow . . .  three weeks from now .



Until then, if you're interested in belonging to a Republican organization in Hawaii which always speaks out for conservative solutions and against liberal idiocy, then consider becoming a member of the Hawaii Republican Assembly (HIRA).

Join us today and change Hawaii tomorrow.


Mahalo nui loa.