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Say what you will about Gov. David Ige. He is going to say what he will, bare bones, take it or leave it.
His last State of the State speech provided the best example: stilted syntax, wobbly delivery and rhetoric that plodded, not soared.
If you were expecting words of aloha by a state leader setting out a glowing new future, now was not the time. If you thought today called for historical perspective and a time for mulling how the past shapes the future, nope, not here. Or if there was expectation that Ige would set out a menu for the next governor to follow, that order was not issued.
Instead, as Gov. Ige’s time in office is moving to a close, his final State of the State was mostly about continuing to right the ship of state.
As a journalist hoping for a glimpse into Ige’s own perspective on how he moved Hawaii’s history, the speech was more sentimental than hard-edged.
At the same time, the speech was rooted in the present; if Hawaii expected Ige to accept that there were only months left to his time in office and everyone was expected to still put in a full day, that also was absent. Instead it was as if a State of the State speech is expected, so here it is, meeting over.
Ige in interviews after his speech acknowledged that he would have liked to have had the proper setting to personally greet and thank the various interest groups that helped his administration get through both the COVID-19 crisis and the resulting economic collapse. But he didn’t make time for that.
Indeed, any administration faced with the tests presented to Hawaii’s eighth governor would be sorely challenged.
As Ige said in his speech: “In the first year of the pandemic, we were forced to cut over a billion dollars from the budget.”
At the same time, Ige five times mentioned that Hawaii’s finances were rescued by the billions of federal dollars sent to Hawaii during the economic disaster.
From health to transportation to education, the many jobs of government in Hawaii were saved by the federal resources providing the helping hand.
As the same time, Ige noted but probably could have said “Thank You” to Hawaii’s own mighty taxing power by noting, “Tax collections have jumped by an astounding 27.3% over last year’s totals — that’s a direct reflection of the rebound in visitor arrivals, increased consumer spending, and the growing strength of our local businesses.”
Still, Ige had the perspective to note, just as Hawaii’s longest-serving governor, George Ariyoshi, did in his last State of the State speech: Hawaii is not just unique, but fragile and needs constant care.
“Our island state has limits. On a fragile continent, mistakes can be made in the use of land and water. In our islands, the same mistakes can be fatal,” Ariyoshi warned in 1986.
Thirty-six years later, Ige ended his address with the familiar — a continued sense of community and “our deep-seated belief that we’re part of a greater ohana and that we have a responsibility to our community.”
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.
