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State Rep. Kaniela Ing is proposing a state task force to study whether a government job can be provided for everyone who needs one. Read more

State Rep. Kaniela Ing is proposing a state task force to study whether a government job can be provided for everyone who needs one.

Ing (D, South Maui) has introduced House Bill 1992 to create a task force to study a “public sector option to provide jobs for all” in Hawaii. The task force would study the feasibility of guaranteeing all Hawaii residents over the age of 18 a job in government and determine how much funding would be required to provide those jobs.

Not surprisingly, not everyone agrees with his approach. State Rep. Bob McDermott (R, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point) said Hawaii has the lowest unemployment rate in the nation at the moment, and described Ing’s proposal as “a solution looking for a problem.”

The state boasted a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 2 percent in December, which was the lowest rate since the state began using the current methodology to calculate the unemployment rate in 1976.

Ing, who is running for the congressional seat representing urban Honolulu, acknowledged Hawaii generally has a low unemployment rate compared with the rest of the nation, but said those statistics are misleading.

“Part of it is due to the fact that folks are working two and three jobs, and the jobs they have don’t pay livable wages,” he said. Ing said the true unemployment rate including people who are underemployed or have given up looking for work “is probably much, much higher.”

Ing believes the unemployment rate will skyrocket in the years ahead. Some have proposed the government make cash payments to guarantee a “universal basic income” for people, and Ing said he wants to explore the possibility of providing jobs instead of cash.

“In the future where everything’s going to get automated or globalized, which is already happening all across America, what kind of solution are we going to provide?” Ing said.

He said it may be more appropriate for the federal government to address the problem, adding that “if Congress can pass a $1 trillion tax break for the rich, surely they could spend that sort of money to actually help working families,” he said.

The state and counties already have more than 68,000 full-time employees, and Ing said government operations here could certainly be more efficient.

Still, “there are kids to be taught, there are kupuna to be cared for, potholes to be paved, bridges to be repaired, trees to be planted, but the private sector is just not meeting that demand,” Ing said. “So, there’s work out there, there’s just not the jobs.”

McDermott said the state already provides help for people who need jobs. “It’s called the unemployment office. You can go down there is you’re out of work and you look for a job, and they have a lot of jobs.”

“To guarantee somebody a job — you can’t guarantee anybody a job if you don’t know what their skills are,” he said. “That seems ludicrous to me, and of course if that’s a state job, that would be enormously costly.”

HB 1992 has been referred to the House committees on Labor and Public Employment and Finance, but lawmakers have not yet scheduled a hearing on the measure.