A New Day 2.0
08/17/2011
Chad Blair/Civil Beat
Gov. Neil Abercrombie summoned state leaders to Washington Place Wednesday afternoon to tell them that, despite having closed a $214 million deficit for fiscal year 2011, serious budget challenges lie ahead.
Five of them, actually. None of them new.
Specifically, the governor identified what he described as threatening storms: unfunded liabilities from employee retirement funds and medical benefits, rising health-care costs, over-dependence on imported energy and food, lack of good jobs and dramatic program cuts from Washington.
The canoe of state that Abercrombie described as in danger of capsizing in his State of the State address in January has been righted, but any one of the five storms could flood and sink it.
The solution?
A New Day plan — version 2.0.
