Governor 2002 to 2010

Throughout her eight years as Governor of the great State of Hawaii, Governor Lingle had the opportunity to work with many outstanding people in guiding our state through extraordinary times.

Highlights of the achievements of the Lingle Administration which will continue to have a positive impact in the coming years include:

    • The Department of Accounting and General Services, together with public, private and nonprofit sector partners built and opened nine homeless and transitional housing shelters, doubling the shelter capacity statewide. These efforts have helped thousands of homeless families and individuals get back on their feet, and resulted in a 165 percent increase in the number of homeless people transitioning into permanent housing. Learn more about Governor Lingle’s focus on Affordable Housing and Homelessness
    • The Department of Human Services (DHS) helped instill dignity for public assistance recipients by helping them get back into the workforce, and in the process reduced welfare rolls by 40 percent. In addition, the team at DHS has received national recognition for its work in reducing the number of children in foster care by almost half, while ensuring these children remain safe and well-cared for.
    • The Lingle Administration expanded the types of mental health services covered under the Pre-Paid Healthcare Act and revamped uncontrolled spending in behavioral health services so the programs can be sustained and patients can get reliable care in the years ahead. Our state used to be ranked last in the country for how we treated residents with mental illness. Under Gov. Lingle’s leadership, we moved to 11th place among the states.
    • Governor Lingle’s Administration placed a keen focus on Hawaii’s education future by supporting the expansion of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in our schools. With her support, robotics education is now in more than 50% of Hawaii’s public, private and charter schools statewide. Learn more about Gov. Lingle’s leadership on STEM education.
    • The Department of Land and Natural Resources worked with environmental groups, native Hawaiian organizations, federal officials and the President of the United States to establish Papahānaumokuākea as the largest U.S. marine sanctuary, recently designated by the United Nations as a World Heritage Site.
    • The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) and the Hawaiian Homes Commission worked tirelessly to live up to the state’s obligation and responsibility by awarding nearly 2,500 homestead leases during Gov. Lingle’s Administration, with thousands more homes in development stages before her Administration’s end. And, DHHL didn’t just build houses: They planed and designed communities that embraced both program beneficiaries and their surrounding neighbors.
    • State Civil Defense was a steady hand in guiding our emergency response during times of threat and need, upgrading and improving our emergency communications and shelters, and providing assistance during disastrous floods, earthquakes and tsunami warnings. In addition, its work with FEMA and the National Weather Service made Hawaii a safer place.
    • The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) team had the vision to launch the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative that gained national and international attention and respect. The utilities, Federal, State and County governments, and others in the environmental and business communities made significant progress toward achieving our goal of 70 percent clean energy by 2030. The work of the Lingle Administration and the foundation laid was hailed by the U.S. Department of Energy as a model for what other states, territories, and island nations can accomplish. Learn more about the Lingle Administration’s push for clean energy.
    • The outstanding work by the DBEDT team also resulted in a record year in 2010 for Hawaii’s film, television and digital media industry, with close to $400 million in production expenditures. In addition, DBEDT did an outstanding job of positioning Hawaii in the global marketplace and highlighting our role in the Asia-Pacific part of the world.

Not only did Governor Lingle’s Administration achieve positive results in a wide variety of areas, but it also showed it could perform well under the most difficult of times. The Lingle Administration was able to confront the global economic collapse at the end of 2008 which resulted in the most severe economic crisis in our State’s history, by closing an almost $3 billion gap in state revenues without increasing taxes. The work of the Budget and Finance team, in cooperation with state agencies, helped with the difficult decisions Governor Lingle had to make to keep Hawaii from falling into the fiscally precarious situation some of our sister states faced.

Governor Lingle appointed 22 judges through an open and transparent process that included public input on judicial nominees. Their decisions will be a lasting contribution to justice and fairness in our judicial system.