How many people can you squeeze into cramped Conference Room 211 at the Hawaii State Capitol?
Turns out you can get a lieutenant governor, 16 Cabinet directors, administration policy analysts, the Department of Education superintendent, the University of Hawaii president and 14 state senators.
Plus three TV reporters, a print reporter, a radio reporter, a news service reporter and two reporter-hosts. And dozens more.
They weren’t there just for kicks. Instead, most were there for the single-most important issue facing state government: What to do about the budget in light of rising costs and plummeting revenue.
That was the agenda of Senate Ways and Means on Monday: where to find the money to keep essential government services in operation while meeting a $1.3 billion deficit — including $232 million before June 30 — through June 2013.
That’s why all those folks jammed into the conference room and spilled out into the hallway. (A WAM staffer soon set up a TV so the proceedings could be followed via the Capitol’s internal television system).
“Everybody is worried about what they are going to be left with,” one Cabinet head whispered to me.
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