Nah, that's OK. Keep the change.

Gov. Linda Lingle announced last week that the state has a surplus of $486 million in the general fund, this after being in the hole $175 million last year and $130 million the year before.

So she's already talking about giving it back.

Which is nice and generous and all that, but fix the schools instead, why don't you?

Oh, it always comes down to that, doesn't it? Fix the schools. Trouble is, it does always come down to that.

Every year, the DOE has to beg and plead for money to fix this puka roof and that rotten railing and those seeping toilets and every year it's "Sorry. We don't have enough to go around. Pick three roofs and try again for the rest later. Did you try jiggling the handle?"

This year, the Department of Education got millions of dollars less than what it said it needed for school repairs and maintenance. Like, $25 million less.

According to DOE calculations, $100 million is needed annually just to keep up with wear and tear. Not to make school facilities nice or new, but just to keep up.

That money sitting in the general fund hardly seems like a surplus when you walk around some of those pretend-you-don't-notice campuses. Even the nicer ones are scarred and battle-weary.

Not to mention UH's late-model, high-mileage, lotsa-dings facilities. And the state hospitals managed under the Hawai'i Health Systems Corp. And has anyone noticed that traffic on state highways is pretty bad?

It's not like the state's to-do list is full of second- or third-tier nice-to-have projects. A lot of stuff needs to be fixed. A lot of it has been broken a long, long time.

Do the job and then talk about what you have left over. It's not a surplus if the budget wasn't realistic to start with.

It's like working for employers who skimp on the basics to make it seem like they're brilliant business managers, rationing office supplies, cheaping out the bathroom tissue, making everybody miserable with the dying office machines, and then offering to throw a Christmas party at the end of the year. Forget the party. Nobody's in the mood. Just make the everyday working environment better and we'll potluck.

No Child Left Behind, and No Child stuck in a hot, broken, sagging classroom with rubbled sidewalks, dustbowl playgrounds and leaking restrooms. How's that for a battle cry?

So keep that money.

Use it well.

Sure, some tax breaks would be nice, especially since the city is planning to job us O'ahu people on the excise tax, but refunds of, what, couple hundred dollars? Nah, we'll just spend that on dumb stuff we don't need.

You keep it and buy us some things we do need. Badly.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.