Sunday, January 20, 2008

 

Withholding $7 million from charities, culture, arts, social services should help explode the myth of Lingle's popularity


by Larry Geller

I admire investigative reporters immensely. Ian Lind's Saturday blog post mentioned a new reporter headed to Hawaii to work at the Star-Bulletin. That's good news. Of course, Ian himself is a star investigative reporter. And he's just uncovered some important information.

I was amazed to learn that Ian reads the legal notices. Now, that takes dedication. Check out the article above for what he discovered—a comprehensive list of Grants-in-Aid that Governor Lingle has withheld. Yup, Disappeared Money.

Since these funds would have directly benefited the people of the state, it raised the question once again, in mind, whether Lingle's supposed popularity is real or whether it is a product of her PR team's expert spin. Check this out:

Reading the list (Ian helpfully links a copy from his site), I can tell you that Lingle is probably not popular with supporters of the Kidney Foundation. They're out $50,000. Kidney disease is a major problem in Hawaii. Those suffering with diabetes or kidney ailments might be thinking twice after this money was snatched from their advocacy organization.

I'm guessing that Lingle can't be too popular with the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation. They're missing $500,000. No small change.

Or the Aloha Medical Mission, Family Promise of Hawaii, the Hawaii Cord Blood Bank, or the Coalition for a Drug Free Hawaii. And on and on.

The total snatched from the people's programs was $7,533,193. That's an astounding sum in a small state.

The Grant-in-Aid process is described by Senator Roz Baker in this article she posted on the Senate Majority Caucus blog. It's an essential source of funding that is not easy to get, and which benefits innumerable programs that government cannot provide on its own. Like the work of the Kidney Foundation, the others mentioned above, and many more. Jobs, health, culture, the arts. All people's programs.

I'm grateful that Ian posted the list. It would be nice if a print reporter would pick up this issue as well. Stop laughing. Meanwhile, good thing Ian Lind is on the beat.

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Comments:

the graphic is a "Lingle" mask slipping showing the wolf behind it. one is left wondering what the motive is. Perhaps a letter. Dear Governor,

Why are you not distributing this money in a timely fashion? Makes no sense unless you are cruel. or is that too direct?
 

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