UH Hilo Stories
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Dean of UH Hilo’s College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resource Management:
Ultimately, revitalizing Hawaiʻi’s agriculture will depend on strong and productive relationships among farmers, consumers, agricultural scientists, and governmental and non-governmental agencies related to food production and distribution.
By
Bruce Mathews, Dean of the College of Agricultural, Forestry, and Natural Resource Management, UH Hilo.
On January 21, the University of Hawai‘i Economic Research Organization (UHERO) published a brief by Sumner La Croix and James Mak entitled “Reviving Agriculture to Diversify Hawai‘i’s Economy,” describing limited potential for agriculture to be a major source of economic growth in Hawaiʻi over the next 10 to 15 years. This report noted that doubling food production would only increase state GDP by 0.15 percent, however there are certainly a host of other factors for Hawaiʻi to consider besides GDP such as c
Legislative Leaders: Pay Raises For State Workers May Be Tough This Year - Honolulu Civil Beat
Legislative Leaders: Pay Raises For State Workers May Be Tough This Year
The state’s agriculture development agency also is still a target of legislative scrutiny as is the state auditor. Reading time: 4 minutes.
Top Hawaii lawmakers have signaled that thousands of state workers shouldn’t expect pay increases anytime soon given the state’s historic budget shortfall.
The governor has introduced measures to fund pay increases for all public workers except police. Contract negotiations for those workers are likely to start this year, House Speaker Scott Saiki said.
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Both the Hawaii Commercial Rent Survey and The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization’s survey of residential landlords show landlords left in the lurch.
The commercial survey concentrated on the fourth quarter of 2020, finding $57 million in unpaid rent per month across all industries. This was a slight improvement over the third quarter.
Retail and restaurants remain the hardest hit by Covid closures, responsible for close to half of the unpaid rent.
And we haven’t seen the end of this. According to the survey organizer, Ryan Tanaka, president of Island Business Management, half of the respondents expect to miss at least one rent payment between now and June. Four in 10 businesses expect to miss three to six months of rent payments.