An enduring Hollywood war movie scene is the grim pilot bringing his battered, shot-up plane back to base.

Oil is streaming from one engine, the other has a propeller that has ominously stopped turning, the co-pilot can see daylight through the airframe below his boots, the pilot can’t get the radio to work; his only mission is to land in one piece.

If Gov. David Ige is the pilot guiding Hawaii’s beleaguered state budget through the past decade of financial fears, the former Ways and Means chairman and now governor has accepted a picture of himself as that pilot, steering the crashing budget safely back to earth.

Instead of feathering the engines in his shot-up plane, today Ige is ready to push the throttle forward.

A year ago, Hawaii’s tourist-based economy was that sputtering plane. Just like in the movies, the engine of tourism caught and is firing on all cylinders.

A year ago, the global coronavirus had leveled Hawaii’s economy. State workers were looking at layoffs and cuts in benefits. It was an across-the-board flameout. Then the massive federal aid kicked in as Hawaii was rescued. Tourism, even without the reliable spending from Japanese tourists, again perked up the economy.

Last week, Ige was able to look at growth and good news. Growth has been the Christmas miracle.

“Current general fund tax revenue growth through the first five months of FY 22 has been 27.3%,” Ige reported on the state’s webpage.

“That’s astounding. We’ve seen increased consumer spending, the rapid recovery of visitor arrivals, and healthy general excise and income tax collections,” Ige said. “The increased revenues allow us to launch initiatives that are responsive to the pandemic and restore critical services that were previously reduced.”

Ever the cautious pilot, however, Ige is tempering his budget. He sees the the state budget — “the single most important document developed each year that addresses the state’s priorities” — as a plan with a parachute. A $1 billion parachute.

His version of the budget comes with a hefty dollop of planned savings to the state’s rainy day fund, noting that “while we’re cautiously optimistic, we must continue to prepare for unforeseen events and invest in a sustainable future for Hawaii.”

“As we have seen with the pandemic, we must be prepared to weather the worst. We had built up the emergency fund prior to the pandemic,” Ige said during a state Capitol news conference, explaining why he wants a $1 billion safety net.

Others, such as Finance Committee chairwoman Rep. Sylvia Luke, are saying, “There are too many needs out there and too many things we need to take care of that need immediate attention.”

After a brutal year, saving for potential losses is a difficult argument to make.

Despite Ige’s caution, Hawaii’s end-of-year debate is worrying about how to spend the money, not how to save more. That’s a really big Christmas present compared to the lumps of coal hung in last year’s Christmas stockings.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.