Pay less now, or more later

The Maui News
Friday, June 27, 2008

Editorial

The bigger the dollar figure, the harder it is to get the Legislature - or, for that matter, the County Council - to approve spending money for needed repairs and improvements of infrastructure such as roads, buildings and harbors. Meanwhile, the price tag for the needed work keeps on climbing.

At first glance, spending $23 million to upgrade Hana Bay's wharf, pier and boat ramp seems a lot to spend for very little. Not if you live in Hana. The eastern end of Maui is connected to "the world out there" only tenuously.

Everything Hana needs - from groceries to gasoline - moves across Hana Highway. Cut the road and the community will be looking at hard times. Emergency supplies might be flown in but the cost would be prohibitive, even if it could cover the community's needs. There's one other option: Use the sea.

For more than half of the last century, the wharf, pier and boat ramp in Hana Bay were the way the community got what it needed and shipped out what it had to sell, first sugar and then beef. For all of the last century, the facilities were left to the not-so-tender mercies of the elements. Now, to correct the decades of neglect, the state is spending $23 million.

The money should be well spent. No community anywhere in the state should be left on its own for lack of access. Making Hana's wharf, pier and boat ramp useable will provide the option of a sea-lift if one is ever needed. It might also provide a landing for a county coastal ferry that would be a good adjunct to a light-rail mass transit system and well-maintained surface roads.

It took years before state Sen. J. Kalani English was able to get fellow legislators to agree the Hana Bay improvements were worth doing. Had the same effort been made decades ago, the cost would have been lower. Years ago the county could have purchased One Main Plaza for $10 million. It didn't and now is paying $1.1 million a year to rent space the taxpayers could have owned.

It takes courage - call it leadership - for a politician to push for needed big-ticket spending for the likes of water sources and systems and mass transit. It's always easier to put it off and just watch the final cost soar.

Original article URL: http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/505371.html

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