#southmaui #kca #mauicountycouncil

4/17/18

We reported on the annual Council’s Committee regional visit to our South Maui district last Tuesday, April 9th, in the evening to hear the fiscal year 2020 budget concerns.

So why did we venture to the Council chambers in Wailuku one week later?

The nine elected officials are inundated with requests for funding from a wide variety of entities. They are charged with difficult decisions on allocating funding.

Sometimes repeated requests can reinforce the value of specific allocations of taxes.

While many valuable entities are asking for grants and funding to support their work, and government agencies are requesting funding to maintain their services to the community, the Kihei Community Association has never asked for any money from the government for our organization.

We are totally member supported and thankful to our members. We only make requests which benefit our community.

Today the prior eight testifiers were requesting funding for their organizations of veterans, economic development, and watershed preservation, which are all worthy causes for sure.  However, we were the last testifiers and the only one asking for the needs of the community, and not for our non-profit organization.

We continue our incessant drumbeat for infrastructure: sidewalks, North-South Collector Road,  the bridge over Kulanihakoi river on South Kihei Road,  and bike paths. Our drumbeat for these issues will continue for the fiscal year 2020 because it has largely been ignored, despite the 1998 Kihei-Makena Community Plan.

We also asked for some security in our county parks.

So, we again asked the new Council to please remember not KCA, but the needs of the South Maui Community.