Pandemic Cloud Lingers As Ige Prepares His Final State Of The State Address… Hawaii was on the upswing for most of Ige’s two terms as governor, but his most recent speeches reflect more troubled times.
Gov. David Ige will make his eighth and final State of the State speech to the Legislature on Monday as Hawaii slogs through yet another wave of Covid-19 infections, the latest surge in a pandemic that already upended many of the governor’s plans.
Ige made his first State of the State speech in 2015 as the state was on the upswing, headed into a rosy period of record high visitor arrivals and record low unemployment. It was a time of enormous opportunity.
State tax collections boomed, and Ige used five of his previous speeches to announce ambitious plans to try to cope with homelessness, remedy Hawaii’s lack of affordable housing, and ease the spiraling cost of living.
Hawaii lawmakers often fault Ige for failing to advance those goals, saying he offered big ideas in his speeches, and then failed to execute those plans. An example that often comes up is his 2017 proposal to double local food production by 2020, which never happened.
