text: This isn't about the existing observatories although their lease expires in 2033. It's unlikely that will be renewed. There may be a total of 700 people employed through Mauna Kea but most are technicians, some engineers, a lot of service people. The nature of astronomy today is astronomers don't work at the telescope location. They lease viewing time, may do some astro tourism when their viewing slot comes up. Astronomer tourists spend a fraction of the average tourist (they don't go to tourist attractions). They collect their data, go over to UH-Manoa for some processing then take it back to where they came from to work on a team study and report. None of that observatory "charity" money makes it south of Hilo. Go to Kau, ask how many people are deriving jobs, income and education from the observatories? As far as Hawaii island goes, all these great "discovery" announcements usually have a *Discovered by X observatory on Mauna Kea*, not even a mahalo for the kama'aina.