There's an old saying, often attributed to the Chinese, that sounds like a blessing but is really a curse: "May you live in interesting times."

While there is little or no evidence that the Chinese ever used such a phrase, it works as a wry way of saying may you live in times that are anything but placid, orderly or ordinary.

In that context, the Hawai'i state Legislature opens its annual session a week from today in what by any measure are more than interesting times. Lawmakers will convene in an atmosphere of economic uncertainty as great as any Hawai'i has faced since statehood.

That's unhappy news for elected officials who are far better prepared and politically more inclined to spend money than to cut spending — to give rather than to take.

Yes, there have been tough times before. But the systemic and likely enduring quality of this economic slowdown is of a magnitude beyond what most policymakers have ever experienced.

That makes the 2009 session a true test of leadership for the Democrats who control the Legislature and the Republican Lingle administration. Two essential tasks lie ahead:

First, state spending must be trimmed to meet severely diminished tax resources. Likely this will require more than the usual medicine, which is to run all existing operations on a lean budget "until things turn around." This year, lawmakers will be faced with the grim business of deciding what state programs and projects simply cannot continue.

Second, legislators will be asked to come up with new and innovative ways to boost the economy. Ironically, this will require spending money at a time there is no extra cash to spend. But there is little choice. It is critical that lawmakers make smart decisions today that will pay off in a steady, if not growing economy tomorrow.

The big idea on the table right now is a massive public works push, in which state and county construction projects are put on the fast track with the idea of creating jobs. Fair enough. This is the same idea being advanced across the country and by the incoming Obama administration. But 2009 will be more favorably remembered if legislators can come up with creative investments that do more than simply churn the economy by speeding up the current list of construction projects.

This is the time to invest in job-producing but far-reaching projects such as alternative energy, switching on our schools for the digital age and laying down the infrastructure for a true information economy.

If legislators can do all this, 2009 can be remembered as a year that was interesting, in the faux-Chinese sense, but also a time of great courage and innovation.

Jerry Burris' column appears Wednesdays in this space. See his blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com/akamaipolitics. Reach him at jrryburris@yahoo.com.