From The Garden Island:

If Congress does not reach a compromise in the next six weeks, the Budget Control Act of 2011 will go into effect when the clock turns to midnight on Dec. 31, setting up a chain reaction which will likely leave many government programs short-funded. That would include the National Wildlife Refuge System, the world’s largest system of lands and waters protected for wildlife.

“The fiscal cliff that we are all facing right now is most likely going to have a devastating effect on America’s wildlife refuges, and that includes some that are basically in your back yard,” said Jerilyn Schweitzer, a public relations volunteer at the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Marine Conservation Institute. The Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge and the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument would be among the places affected, she said.

Funding cuts to the nation’s wildlife refuges, already operating on a “shoestring budget,” according to Schweitzer, would represent an additional 10 percent reduction to NWRS and would affect more than protected wildlife — it would also have a ripple effect on local economies. Read the full story.

And here’s the latest in other neighbor isle gov’t and politics:

Ethics board dismisses complaint against Hawaii County workers

Attorneys for Rapozo, Carvalho say gas-theft charges are baseless

Yagong seeks cultural commission

Union contracts trump Hawaii County ethics code

Kauai CC opens new kitchen learning center

Sunday sewage spill contained in Eleele

Report: Lack of time to restart chopper engine in East Maui crash

Hawaii County to free paper tiger from bureaucratic cage

Maui medical team in N.Y. helping Sandy victims

Molokai elects a new honorary mayor

Big Isle police department accredited

$2M in renovations planned for Edith Kanakaole Stadium

Organizer puts the brakes on Hilo Toys for Tots ride

Maui boards and commissions application period to open

Apapane visits Fleming Arboretum

Photo of Papahanaumokuakea courtesy USFWS Pacific.