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Harold Masumoto, former Director of State Planning under Governor Waihee and now heading the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii, gives a candid insider account of decisions made during the Waihee years. The centerpiece is the controversial use of $65 million in airport funds to purchase Campbell Estate land — a transaction Masumoto says was a condemnation settlement serving four simultaneous public purposes, including breaking Campbell's land monopoly in West Oahu, providing airport expansion parcels, preserving agricultural operations, and creating a racetrack. He argues the deal ultimately made financial sense given subsequent land exchanges. Masumoto admits regret over the spaceport expenditures and, most strongly, over failing to advance mass transit on Oahu. He sees the current fiscal crisis as an opportunity to restructure government the way the 1963 crisis prompted a realignment of county and state responsibilities. On the economy, he argues that Hawaii cannot have both population growth and economic growth — one must give — and that Governor Cayetano appears to be choosing the population-restraint path. Callers press him on Barber's Point, military base consolidation, DBED's sprawl, and the future of the deep draft harbor.
Transcript
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