Thursday, February 25, 2016
Why is it not ok for Hawaii to raid GEMS funds but ok to raid Medicaid funds for school air conditioning "plan"
Today's Star-Advertiser reports that the state Senate is challenging Governor David Ige's proposal to borrow $100 million from the Green Energy Securitization Fund to install air conditioning in some school classrooms by the end of the year.
Indeed, that is not what the fund was created for. GEMS is intended to loan money for nonprofit organizations to assist homeowners and renters to install solar energy systems, the paper correctly notes.
Oddly, the article does not question at all the proposal furthered by Senator Jill Tokuda to use federal money coming to the state for Medicaid instead.
The Medicaid program provides health care and services for those with disabilities and for low-income residents of the state, and would seem to have nothing to do with the Department of Education's need to pay construction costs for cooling classrooms.
Why has the paper simply reported this and not questioned it?
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