I am a single income, full time single mother of a growing 12 year old boy. My husband died of colon cancer after a 4 year battle with it when my son was only 4. I have not remarried and remain single. I have dedicated that last 19 years of my life to providing counseling services to student's identified under 504 or IDEA for the School Based Behavioral Health Program. It has taken me a long time to get where I am. Yet, even with my full salary, there are not a lot of extras or luxuries in my life. When my husband died, we had exhausted our finances in his battle with cancer. I did not get any money, life insurance etc. I moved to Oahu because I was no longer able to afford living alone on the Big Island. I have a roommate in my home to help me pay the rent. If I lived alone I could not even afford my rent with my normal salary.
A 20% pay cut would leave me virtually poverty stricken. I would not longer meet the income requirement to live where I do, which is at Iroqouis Point. I just renewed my lease for another year, so I would likely have to default on my lease, thereby making it harder for me to find anywhere else to live. I would have a very difficult time putting sufficient food on the table for my child. I am terrified that we would be homeless. I would be taking a $15,7000 a year pay cut. How am I supposed to recover that amount of money just to maintain the basic, frugal life that I am living? My son would suffer, not only from the impact of possibly facing homelessness and not having enough food, but also he would not be able to continue to play club soccer because of course, all extras would have to go.
I was born and raised in Hawaii and my son is 4th generation in this State. We have no family left here to help us, we have no family on the mainland to go to. My license as an MFT is not transferable nor has reciprocity with any other state, so I am basically trapped here unless I plan to start my life over from ground zero. I can't just move in with my parents.
The thought of the impact this would have on my life has already driven me into a major depression and filled me with dread and anxiety. I honestly do not know how I would survive. This would push us into poverty, yet I always seem to make just a few dollars too much to qualify for any government aid programs and I would not be able to collect unemployment because I would still be employed. It pains me greatly and brings me to tears to think how it would even further limit the life and experiences and such that my son deserves. Growing up with no father and a single income mother is hard enough, this would just be catastrophic for us.
Not to mention, this will not help the economy in any way. Everyone that can leave will, that means many of our teachers recruited from the mainland will go home. Everyone that can leave to go somewhere better will. Everyone will have less money to spend to support the economy. Ige thinks it will help with taxation, but cut all of our pay that deeply and there will be less taxes collected. More people will need government aid. Our keiki's education will suffer even further and we already have some of the worst education in the nation.
I cannot fathom for the life of me how putting thousands more people into a precarious or poverty stricken state is going to help anything. If we can't pay our rent and mortgages, how is this helping the economy? To me it seems this is a great way to ensure a greater economic crash.
For me and my little family, it will be utterly devastating. I am working harder now at home than ever, and every other educator I know is as well. We don't get paid enough as it is to live in the economy of our state under normal circ*mstances. And to take away 20% of our pay???? I hope Ige plans to provide government housing for all of us who will be on the street.
I voted for him. I certainly regret that now. I thought he was a governor for the people and supported the unions and our government workers. Now he is jeopardizing our very safety with such insane ideas about how to "help" the economy. I hope for all of our sake that he is brought to his senses.
