CAFR 2011 Final with opinion (2)

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i body of the County government. This component unit is included in the County's reporting entity because of its financial relationship with the County, The County provides a full range ofmunicipal services. These include police and fire protection; emergency medical care; public prosecutor; culture and recreation; sanitation; _ social services; water; planning and zoning; construction and maintenance of highways, streets and infrastructure; real property assessment and tax collection; and general administrative services. However, the County does not provide such other traditional services as public education, hospitals and courts. These services are provided by the State government. The County consists of the island of awa.i`i, 4,028 square miles in size. It is twice as large as the combined area of all the other inhabited islands in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Since there is no other local or municipal government within the County, there are no overlapping taxes and no overlapping debt. The County has an elected mayor and a nine- . mem er council. Economic Condition and outlook The island of H wai`i, commonly known as the Big Island, is located 214 miles from Honolulu,the state capital; 2,200 miles from the west coast of the continental United States; and 4,000 miles from Japan. The city of Hilo on the east side of the island serves as the county seat as well as the transportation and financial center for the Big Island. ilo's infrastructure includes Hilo Harbor, a deep-water port, and Hilo International Airport, which is capable of handling fully-loaded wide-bodied aircraft. Kailua-Kona and South Kohal a, major tourist destination areas on the west side of the Big Island, are served by flights from the United States mainland, and Canada through the Iona International Airport. Scheduled freight services are available between n the islands by air and sea transport. Communities on the island are linked by a network of State and County maintained streets and highways. The Big Island is the most diversified of the neighbor island economies. As a result it is buffered to some extent when any one industry lags. Although 2009 proved to be a challenge for most of the major sectors of the island's economy, the end of fiscal year 2010 and beginning of fiscal year 2011 showed the early signs of an impending economic recovery and the remainder of fiscal year 2011 continued to show signs of the same restrained recovery. The County's labor force numbered 83,367 at June 2011, which is a slight increase from a year ago. A sign that the economy is on the road to improving instead of the dramatic downturn that confronted the County several years ago is the fact that the County's unemployment rate for the current fiscal year 2011 (9.5%)was slightly lower than the prior fiscal year 201 (10.0%), which serves as a positive indicator for the second year in a row. Despite the higher level of unemployment facing the State in recent years, the State continued to remain below the national rate as it did prior to the onset of the recession. - 2 -