This federal bailout is bringing a lot more money to Hawaiʻi than the last one in 2008

Beth Giesting is the director of the Hawaii Budget and Policy Center, which just last summer released a report detailing how vulnerable the state’s economy is to a global recession, and how individuals working low wage jobs tend to be hit hardest. Preliminary data is showing that to be true, as lower income workers seem to make up the largest share of the job losses.

As Giesting watches the federal money come to Hawaiʻi, she said, it appears to be addressing the immediate needs of people who might be out of work or whose businesses are suffering due to mandated closures and social distancing.

Eventually, though, officials will need to consider what to do about the people whose jobs might not exist when the pandemic subsides. She said state officials also need to be more transparent about how they plan to spend the federal relief dollars to help rebuild the economy.

“I am concerned about the transparency of the legislative process,” Giesting said. “How are they ensuring that they have an opportunity to listen and respond to the needs that are being identified in the community? Right now nobody can go to the capitol except for them.

“The way the systems are set up in Hawaiʻi there is not much of a culture of bringing people together and having them coalesce and contribute to ideas. I think that our leaders—whether it’s the Legislature or the executive—tend to make decisions on our behalf without asking us what we want.”