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Bill Wood and Norm Nichols assess Hawaii's business climate from the perspectives of a business journalist and a small-business owner. Both describe conditions as fundamentally hostile: Nichols puts the cost differential at roughly 40 percent above comparable mainland markets, driven by state-mandated employer costs including prepaid health care and workers' compensation — the latter facing an 80 percent rate increase request in 1995. Wood traces the problem historically to post-statehood legislative decisions made during decades of economic euphoria, producing layers of pro-labor regulation that went unchallenged while times were good. Nichols points out that roughly 74 percent of Hawaii's firms employ fewer than ten people, making even modest cost increases enough to push businesses under. Both guests argue that the problem is as much administrative as legislative: a caller from Maui describes waiting more than two years for a state airport lease approval, only to be denied. Wood argues the governor must personally set the tempo for bureaucratic responsiveness. Roth and the guests debate whether Hawaii's economic difficulties are cyclical or structural, with Wood concluding they are both, and that structural weaknesses make the economy far more vulnerable to downturns.
Transcript
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