As lawmakers grapple with $1B shortfall, advocates urge them to preserve social safety net

As lawmakers prepare to grapple with a $1 billion budget shortfall when they reconvene Monday, advocates for the poor are warning them not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Policy experts say the homeless crisis the state is dealing with today can be blamed—at least in part—on the decisions that were made a little more than a decade ago during the Great Recession.

Back them, lawmakers slashed funding to non-profits and decimated the state’s mental health system.

Government policy experts also say that now is the most important time to fund services that will keep vulnerable families afloat. “Typically the state can’t run a deficit. But in cases of emergency—and this is certainly an emergency—they can borrow and the interest is as close to zero as it will ever be,” says Beth Giesting, director of the Hawaiʻi Budget and Policy Center.

Giesting added cutting the budget will only delay the state’s economic recovery. “In times of recession, when private businesses are not investing in the economy, only government can do that,” she said.

But the money has to come from somewhere. And protecting programs could be mean difficult decisions elsewhere, including with raising taxes or pay cuts for public workers.