One year after he stunned Hawaii by unseating an incumbent and fellow Democrat, Gov. David Ige seems comfortable in his executive role, especially where it concerns fulfilling basic responsibilities of state government.
Looking ahead, if Ige can cement some of these basic, foundational fixes to state operations, he should be called on to push the needle more toward the visionary. Based on the record so far, there is hope this can happen.
Ige has embraced his resume as a wonk and technogeek. The former chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee cares about the inner workings of government and its budgetary problems.
And as someone who came to public office from an engineering career, he also understood only too well just how much the state’s technological backsliding had hobbled its performance.
“We knew that we had to work to make things right before we could make things happen,” he told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser editorial board Friday. “It’s really focusing on the core of government.”
As he promised during the entire campaign season, Ige has made progress on these fronts, attacking the information technology morass, for starters.
Ige’s been willing to cancel procurements deemed to be unaffordable, and last week he unveiled a plan to tighten oversight on computer projects going forward.
IT has been one of the governor’s top priorities all along, and it’s plain to see why. The state’s hopelessly defunct computer systems have been at the center of so many of the state’s dysfunctions.
There have been advances on pending priorities as well: finalizing the preservation deal for the Turtle Bay scenic area, as well as paying down the state’s unfunded liabilities for its retirees, improving Hawaii’s credit rating as a result.
As encouraging as this is, Hawaii does need more from its soft-spoken and deliberative governor in the next three years of his term.
There have been flashes of a more assertive style of leadership — for example, his outspoken critique of the proposed acquisition of Hawaiian Electric Industries by a larger Florida-based utility, NextEra.
But much remains on the to-do list that a more aggressive approach would help whittle:
>> The homelessness and affordable-housing crisis predated his administration, and the state’s longstanding deficit of low-income housing will take time to overcome.
But the steps of the past year have disappointed. When Ige issued an emergency declaration, some anticipated that he’d be able to cut through the bureaucracy.
That really hasn’t happened. He hasn’t yet delivered on a promise to dismantle the persistent encampment at Kakaako Waterfront Park, because of delays in contracting to handle the work and to deal with the challenge of storing personal property.
Only now is he crafting a plan to assemble a team to handle enforcement going forward.
After promising to find sites to house more of the homeless, the only shelter site identified has been a storage shed near the park that the state will refit for some 15 families. There are challenges with infrastructure that need to be met on other sites, Ige said.
He also cited incremental progress with adding inventory, greatly cutting back the length of time required to turn around unoccupied public housing units.
The agreement struck with private landlords to house the homeless is promising, provided that the state follows through with support systems for them.
Still, no solution equal to the scale of the problem has emerged.
>> The Thirty Meter Telescope ruling has put this project on hiatus until the developers decide whether to start over on the path to a state permit.
The governor’s position initially seemed halting and ambiguous. Although he later did express his support of the project more pointedly, the responsibility now lies with him to see that the court’s guidance on correcting procedural failures is followed to the letter and that needless delays are whittled back.
The ultimate decision on what comes next on Mauna Kea rests with the TMT team, but the state’s top executive has a role to play.
>> Education remains one of Ige’s chief concerns, especially finding ways to direct more resources to the campuses where principals can manage them. That hasn’t happened yet, although he has pledged to increase the weighted student formula — the allotment that each school gets based on enrollment — in the coming budget year.
It remains to be seen whether that plan survives the next round of legislative sausage-making, in a year when the state faces ever-increasing demands on the public purse. Ige hopes that his tax modernization program — and the IT upgrades that will enable more thorough tax collections — will yield more revenues for the state.
Added revenue, and achieving the efficiencies he seeks, certainly will help. Ige, who’s made a credible start at fixing what’s wrong with government, then can move on to “make things happen.”
