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Honorable Members of the Hawaii County Council March 1, 2011 Page 4 This year, public worker furloughs were expanded and imposed across state and county governments, including twice -a -month furloughs for most county employees. Those furloughs will save the county an estimated $7 million. Furloughs will end on June 30 for all county employees. However, my executive staff in the Office of the Mayor will once again take employee furloughs in the coming fiscal year as part of our continuing effort to reduce the size of the executive budget. This will mark the third consecutive year my staff and I have been furloughed to do our part to reduce spending in our office and in county government as a whole. Growing the Economy, Maintaining Services It isn't enough to reduce spending. We must make the County of Hawaii a better place to live, work, play and do business. We must use the resources we have and our partnerships in the community to grow our economy and steer it toward the bright future we know is ahead. We must use the county's borrowing power and excellent credit rating to help stimulate the economy by building important public works projects now. Interest rates are at extraordinarily low levels, and construction companies are competing aggressively for business. Building county projects now means the taxpayers will pay less. Pressing ahead with county construction projects now will also create badly needed construction jobs to help our working families. We must also look for ways to help our partners such as the University of Hawaii at Hilo as they seek to grow. Growing the university offers new educational opportunities to our young people, while also creating jobs and injecting new dollars into our economy. Projects such as the planned Kapiolani Extension will generate still more economic activity because they will help the university to open up lands for student housing, retailing and other uses. Through our partnerships with Hawaii Tourism Authority, Big Island Visitors Bureau and others we have encouraged the private sector to add airlift to our island, including direct flights from San Jose, Oakland, Portland and Seattle to Kona, and from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Hilo. Hawaii Tourism Authority now reports total visitor arrivals to this island were up 6.1 percent in 2010, while total visitor expenditures increased by 17.6 percent last year. Despite county budget reductions, we are continuing our initiatives to promote alternative energy, and to encourage growth in the agricultural sector by developing the 1,739 -acre county agricultural park at Kapulena. Agriculture and alternative energy are key to our future. At the same time, we are preserving funding for public safety and essential core services. We are protecting and funding nutrition, recreation and other services for seniors. We have preserved programs for our children and youth, and we are maintaining county funding to non -profit organizations.