Dick Rowland’s Xmas List
Below are six actions our elected officials can take to make the coming years good ones for the residents of Hawaii:
1. Stop government overspending. If we cannot pay our bills, our kids and grandkids will. Wise individuals don’t overspend on an annual basis, because consequences are personal. We need to find a way to make overspending a personal issue for our elected officials.
2. Sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. This will force them to look at spending cuts when money gets scarce.
3. Usually I try to avoid new laws as they tend to backfire, but I like this one: “All lawmakers must sign a notarized pledge that they have read a proposed bill before they will be allowed to vote for or against it.” Just to add some accountability, the penalty for violation will be expulsion from the office held and a $10,000 fine or a year in jail, as the offender chooses.
4. Pass another law. (I’m on a roll.): “Effective immediately, there will be no new government retirement plans for any elected official in Hawaii.” Elected office was never intended to be a career. All current retirement plans will be frozen with no more funding. Period.
5. Starting 1/1/08, elected officials must start taking their oath of office seriously. That means that each of them must seriously ponder whether they have constitutional authority to vote to pass a law. Wow! Is that revolutionary or what?
6. Every official would sign a pledge affirming that every citizen will be treated equally under the law, no matter their ancestry, national origin, sex or religion, wealth, etc. There would be a penalty for violating this pledge, such as ten years in prison.
Now for my promise. If all the above is done and enforced, I will retire and start a career of enjoyable watching. Somehow I find myself doubtful of that retirement. Am I a pessimist, merely cynical – or a realist?
Dick Rowland is president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.