Local government in many ways operates differently from the federal government. So, it makes sense that voters should be looking at different qualities to optimize federal and local governance.
The main difference between the two comes in budgeting. State and local governments are required by law to balance their budgets, whereas the federal government can run a fiscal deficit. This means that the federal government can incur a deficit to meet its obligations. The federal government can spend more than it brings in revenue. For example, in FY 2023, the federal government spent $6.13 trillion and collected $4.44 trillion in revenue, resulting in a deficit. Deficit federal spending enables the federal government to do far more than the limitations of state government.
Technocrats and numbers-crunchers vs visionaries and moral leaders
Due to local government’s mandate by law to balance the budget, candidates who have backgrounds in finance, money and administrative managers have an edge in optimizing local governance. Local government has multiple streams of revenues to balance their budgets – state income tax, county property taxes, sales or excise taxes, corporate taxes. The federal government can primarily focus on two major sources of revenues: income tax and corporation tax.
In the federal government, ideal candidates are not technocrats or numbers-crunchers like it would be for the state level. They can hire staff for that. Rather, visionaries, creative-thinkers, strong moral leaders make for ideal national leaders. The federal government’s responsibilities are vastly larger, ranging from moral issues like civil liberties, civil protections and war to security issues like defense and border security to macroeconomics in dealing with inflation and international trade to the impacts of population and labor in immigration. The last option we’d want is for a pure technocrat to handle the vast needs required for sound national leadership in the federal government that often also requires a sense of justice, compassion, fairness and morality.
2024 local elections
Incumbents running in local elections can run on an impressive legislative session going into the November general election. Not only did they balance a budget but have a surplus and still managed to pass tax cuts amounting to $5 billion over the next six years, the largest tax cut ever for the state.
State lawmakers cut spending by $74 million, appropriated $1 billion to cover various costs stemming from the Lahaina disaster, including $500 million for emergency housing for displaced residents and $124 million in rental assistance for those not eligible for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Lawmakers also put people over money first and made a tough decision in passing a bill giving counties the authority to phase out vacation rentals and make them available for residents. This gave Maui County the ability to phase out vacation rentals operating in areas zoned for apartments providing an additional and much needed housing inventory of some 8,000 units. Landlords and investors lobbied heavily against this bill.
Arguably having one of the most efficient and popular legislative sessions this year, incumbents could have an advantage in this election cycle under the premise of rewarding good governance. Still, critics can make reasonable arguments that better ethics and transparency in governance are sorely needed, as well as affordable housing efforts this session fell short and more needs to be done.
But having had a successful legislative session isn’t a sure bet to incumbents’ reelection. There is a strong desire for change nationally that new candidates could exploit to their advantage at the local level. It’s safe to say our federal office holders this time around don’t have to worry about that because there’s no viable challengers in the general this election. But in local office runs, we already saw this anti-incumbent and desire for change turned out well for Honolulu attorney Kim Coco Iwamoto in her upset defeat of the powerful House Speaker Scott Saiki in the primary.
Filipino community and Filipino candidates
We can expect the same standards in electing our Filipino candidates running in local elections, that they are sound money and administrative managers as what local government budgeting requires. At the same time, as local government experience is the steppingstone to higher federal public office, it’s also important to consider our Filipino candidates’ visionary, creative and moral aptitude.
Unfortunately, at the federal level races, there isn’t a strong contender of Filipino ancestry to choose from and assess these standards.
What our Filipino community also expects of our Filipino and non-Filipino candidates is a high level of cultural sensitivity, candidates who know our community and our specific and oftentimes unique needs. We want candidates who can be a bridge between our community and the community at large.
In concrete terms, what are some of these needs at the state level? Strong labor laws, pro-education initiatives, child and senior care tax credits, livable state minimum wage, workforce development programs and affordable housing, to name a few – are all important to our Filipino community.
Based off voter turnout in the last 2022 election — assessing voter turnouts in traditionally Filipino neighborhoods compared with non-Filipino neighborhoods — our Filipino community continues to be plagued by low voter turnout. This must change.
If we are serious about our needs being met, our Filipino community must be active participants in our elections. It’s that simple. Let’s harness our strength, empower our community and vote. Add to this, we must vote smartly.
About Author
+ There are no comments
Add yours