Residency status of military dependents challenged

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Capitol Bureau Chief

A challenge by Maui residents has stalled efforts by the state Reapportionment Commission to redraw the boundaries of Hawai'i's 25 Senate districts and 51 House districts.

Commission members voted yesterday to delay voting on the new political districts until after the state attorney general's office rules on whether 41,430 military dependents in Hawai'i should be considered part of the state's "permanent resident population."

Commission staff had drafted tentative political boundaries assuming the military dependents should count as permanent residents.

The new boundaries divide the state to provide equal numbers of residents in each House district, and equal numbers of residents in each Senate district.

Commission members said they were including military dependents in the resident count because there was no way to be sure whether the dependents considered themselves Hawai'i residents or not.

But Madge Schaefer, a member of the commission's Maui advisory council, said voters believed they were excluding military dependents from the resident population when they approved a Constitutional amendment on reapportionment in 1992. Counting those military dependents as residents would violate the state Constitution, she said.

If those military dependents are excluded from the tally of permanent residents, Schaefer said she believes Maui and the Big Island would each gain one House seat.

But if the military dependents are counted, Maui and the Big Island likely would each gain only "canoe" districts, which are districts they share with another island.

If the military dependents must be excluded, most or all of the tentative boundaries would have to be changed, delaying the reapportionment process further.

Wayne Minami, chairman of the Reapportionment Commission, said he expects the attorney general's office to provide an opinion on the issue in time for the commission's meeting Thursday. The commission is required to publish the proposed district maps by Sept. 7.