The Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) recently announced a dramatic 20% budget shortfall due to the federal government’s decision to shut down the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). That translates to a $200,000+ loss in funding. And just like that, HIFF has taken to the media with donation pleas and poetic declarations about cultural preservation and “uplifting underrepresented voices.”

Look, no one’s rooting against independent film or local creatives. But let’s pump the brakes. Hawaii has one of the highest costs of living in the nation and a tourism-fueled economy worth over $20 billion annually. The idea that we can’t self-fund 20% of a film festival’s budget without begging West Virginia taxpayers to chip in is, frankly, embarrassing.

Here’s a simple question: Why should a coal miner in Beckley or a rancher in Elkins have their federal taxes redirected to subsidize an arts festival in Honolulu? Especially when their own communities struggle to fund basic school programs, infrastructure, and healthcare? This isn’t cultural exchange — it’s economic codependency wrapped in nonprofit branding.

And let’s not pretend Hawaii is powerless here. This is a state that blows through cash on bloated bureaucracies, redundant committees, and last-minute budget theatrics every year. It’s also the same state that repeatedly fails to legalize common-sense revenue streams like recreational marijuana or casinos — ideas that could fund arts programs a hundred times over.

Instead, Hawaii’s leadership chooses to rely on federal handouts, then acts shocked when the money dries up. Here’s a radical idea: if HIFF is truly vital to our community and culture, we fund it ourselves. Local sponsorships. Private donors. Ticket surcharges. Gala events. Heck, ask Netflix to sponsor it and slap their logo on the popcorn.

Art matters. Culture matters. But so does responsibility. The NEA cut isn’t an existential threat to HIFF — it’s a long-overdue test of whether Hawaii values its own institutions enough to sustain them without leaning on the mainland every time there’s a shortfall.

In the meantime, let’s stop the melodrama. A 20% cut is not a death sentence — it’s an opportunity for Hawaii to act like the sovereign, self-sufficient state it claims to be.

Let’s write a better script this time — one that doesn’t rely on taxpayers in other states to keep our cultural lights on.