When Linda Lingle became mayor of Maui County, she took a surplus and left us with a deficit of $1 million.
In 1990, the county budget was $79.2 million, and when she left, eight years later, the budget had risen to $161.8 million.
Even though the budget doubled from 1990 to 1998, she still ended up with a million-dollar shortfall.
Her successor, Kimo Apana, had to pay the price by raising user fees at our landfills to balance the budget and it cost him re-election. Apana also left the county in better financial shape than he found it. We cannot say that of Lingle, who still believes privatizing is better, and collective bargaining has to go.
If you are a senior receiving Social Security and Medicare, a vote for Lingle would not guarantee these two programs would still be here in the years ahead, or for those 55 years old and younger.
Her past solutions threaten these two Democrat-initiated programs.
Rick Medina
Wailuku
