Let me know if this makes sense for you. Picture in your mind a hospital system in the fictional city of Somewhere, U.S.A. suffers a catastrophic electrical fire in the urology department of one of its eight locations due to the negligence of a custodian. The rest of that location, however, is fully functional and damage is mostly constrained to that department.

The board of directors of that hospital system suggest that because of the costs associated with the loss of a urology department, they are going to scale back all services at all their locations, potentially let go of some providers, and they also will look for ways to increase or create new fees on patients. The good news is, one of the directors cautions, “this is a worst case scenario, though.”

If you were using that hospital system, how would you feel about that?

I don’t know about some of you, but if I were a patient there, I’d demand that the hospital get a new board. The last thing you want to do is chop up the other services and tear down the organization just because of a disaster. If anything, a good administrator would try to do more and provide greater services after a disaster, so as to demonstrate that no matter what happens, they are committed to fulfilling their mission.

Logical assumption, right?

And then you go to a place like the Hawaii State Legislature, where, following the unexpected costs associated with the Maui fires last year, we are now facing the possibility of scarcity measures being imposed on the entire state and its public services to balance the budget.

I’ve lived in Hawaii since 2003, and I feel like this is a recurring pattern where every time something goes wrong in Hawaii, we the people are made to pay for it, and even though we’re made to pay more, we’re forced to accept less services and capabilities from our government.

Yes, I get it that the state constitution requires us to have a balanced budget, but how we arrive there shouldn’t be the result of one-trick pony governance that only knows to tear down and tax up.

There’s a couple of things I think we should remind the Legislature about, particularly the Senate. The first is that they need to stop being the perpetual bearers of excuses and bad news and start looking for ways to make things work without making more things difficult.

Government Crowd-Sourcing, Not Crowd-Blocking

Consider: There are many people across Hawaii and the mainland who were deeply moved by the disaster in Maui who are willing to help. We also know that both the state and the counties are able to receive private donations to finance the government.

The first thing we should do is create a state website where both the county and the state governments can solicit crowd-sourced private donations to fund Maui support and recovery efforts. On that website, the public can be shown sponsorship opportunities in the form of shopping lists or ongoing expenses that the state and county need. 

Say for example that a new fire truck replacement is needed for the cost of $1 million dollars. The website can show people the price and rationale for buying it, who will use it and the progress of how much more is needed before it’s fully funded. 

Or say that we need $1,000 a day to cover the costs of temporarily housing a family that’s been displaced. The website could list the exact number of families and the amount that needs to be raised to cover it. Private sponsors could make the donations, and in return, they could receive some kind of benefit like a dedication plaque, or even tax credits or exemptions in exchange for their generosity.

And the best part of all? There could be total transparency in where every dollar went, so we know exactly what we got and what it did for us.

During World War II, the U.S. government actively campaigned for people to buy war bonds to help finance victory. In a similar way, we could have our elected officials – and especially senators so concerned about balanced budgets – go around making inspirational speeches and seeking out donations for Maui. 

“Danny, it can’t be done!” Nonsense. Major startups are being funded every day through crowdsourced donations, and many of them are making useful inventions and services that have never been done before. Why can’t we help pay for Maui, at least in part, this way?

And who better to ask for crowdsourced donations to help Maui than legislators. After all, if they can ask for big corporate money to be elected, it should be an easy thing to ask for corporate and individual money for the worthy cause of helping out Maui residents.

If legislators can ask for big corporate money to be elected, it should be an easy thing to ask for money for the worthy cause of helping out Maui residents.

Cities and communities are built by private individuals and businesses. What better way to take pride in rebuilding a better Maui than bringing together people to pay for better (not less) government? Imagine the pride of having rebuilt streets with dedication plaques of all the donors that helped finance it, or seeing police cruisers and fire department engines with sponsor names on them – that’s what I call government of the people, and by the people.

And then there’s the issue of federal funding. Yes, we get it that right now Washington, D.C., is in gridlock and being able to pay the bills is an ongoing political standoff. But if congressional MAGA Republicans are serious when they say “why should we be paying to give millions to Ukraine when we could use it here at home” then let’s throw that back in their face and tell them “Okay; so then give us an additional $500 million then to rebuild Maui.”

Tell you what, former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, rising star that she is in MAGA world, could even go to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and tell him to help us out.

Either way, if you are a member of county or state government in Hawaii, you should be relentlessly seeking out new funding opportunities for the people of Maui rather than even beginning to suggest the people of the state take a hit in their existing public services. On every whiteboard in every elected office in Hawaii, there better be a handwritten task note that reads “What did I do today to get more money for the budget that I’m complaining so much about?”

Build us up, don’t tear us down! Be a problem solver, not a complexifier. Add services, don’t take them away.

I can’t believe this is constantly a thing where we need to remind elected officials that we put them there to add value, not remove value, and to remove obstacles, not erect new ones.

Give the community a reason to be proud, not to feel cheated, as we move forward in our recovery and rebuilding efforts.