2001 Legislature grappled with difficult state issues

Advertiser Staff

Although the most defining moments came at the end of this year's session, here is a glimpse of how some of the issues unfolded at the State Capitol:

Strikes and money

Overshadowing the entire 60-day session were contract negotiations between Gov. Ben Cayetano's administration and the public worker unions over raises. Those negotiations culminated in the strikes by university faculty and public school teachers.

Lawmakers scoured the $7.1 billion budget to find money to pay for raises, and Senate Ways and Means Chairman Brian Taniguchi announced last month the Senate had set aside about $200 million for teacher raises and $50 million for raises for university faculty.

That angered Cayetano, who accused lawmakers of meddling in the union negotiations and undercutting his bargaining position by announcing publicly how much they were willing to pay.

The final settlements will cost the general treasury about $325 million over the next two years.

Tax trauma

With lawmakers worrying about how to pay for public worker raises, the subject of tax increases naturally came up.

Senators voted 14-11 in March to cancel income tax cuts the Legislature had approved in 1998, but the House refused to consider the measure.

Both the House and Senate approved bills to impose additional taxes on tour wholesalers, but those plans also collapsed when it became clear that would fail when it came up for a second vote in the House.

In the end, lawmakers were pleased to announce they managed to balance the budget without raising taxes. But they had to abandon dozens of proposals to provide tax relief for low-income residents and working people.

One tax break that survived was a bill to provide tax incentives for high-tech companies that set up shop in Hawai'i.

Surprise reforms

For years lawmakers refused to pass measures that would allow for new privatization of government services, or to cut the cost of public worker health benefits.

This year, they pressed ahead with those changes over the objections of the public worker unions.

One bill signed into law yesterday by Cayetano will allow the governor and county mayors to contract with private companies to provide public services now being delivered by public workers.

Another measure will overhaul the Public Employees Health Fund in a way that proponents said will save the state $65 million a year or more. It would put an end to union-sponsored health plans that are paid for by the state and counties. The unions promised to return next year to press for amendments or repeal of the health fund bill.

Gambling again

Once again the alarm sounded among gambling opponents as at least two organizations lobbied lawmakers publicly and privately to convince them to legalize casino gambling.

The annual furor reached a particularly high pitch this year when it was learned Cayetano had traveled to the Bahamas to visit the Atlantis resort with a spokesman for resort owner Sun International.

Cayetano acknowledged he met with Sun International officials, but said the trip was to inspect the world-class aquarium at the resort, not to discuss gambling.

For all of the commotion, the issue went nowhere.

Campaign finance reform

The House pushed forward a bill that would have established a pilot program for publicly financed campaigns in the 2002 Honolulu City Council elections, but the measure died in the Senate.

Good government group advocates and other proponents have said publicly financed campaigns would eliminate the need for candidates to accept monetary donations and would therefore address the public perception that politicians are influenced by special interests.

Opponents, including some senators, said they were uncomfortable with giving state money to people to run a political campaign and that it won't bring much change because participation would be voluntary. The state Campaign Spending Commission already has a public financing program.

The House also moved a bill that would have prohibited campaign contributions by corporations and unions and from companies that have contracts with the state, city or county governments. But the Senate never held a hearing on the bill.

Special education

The Legislature provided more than $170 million more to pay for the federal Felix consent decree, which mandates better services for special needs children. About $700 million over two years has now been appropriated.

Lawmakers also questioned at length the emergency appropriations needed to continue Felix services through June 30.

The Department of Health said the Legislature left it about $30 million a year short of what it needs to meet its obligations under the decree.

But Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Brian Tani-

guchi, D-11th (McCully, Mo'ili'ili, Manoa) said the department's request could not be justified and that it "must realize that no level of funding will bring state compliance with the type of performance that is currently demonstrated."

In the meantime, the Legislature has set up an "investigative" committee to look into the costs of the decree before the 2002 legislative session.

GOP impact

This year for the first time in state history there were 19 Republicans in the state House, and the GOP claims its bulked-up presence made a major difference.

Republicans forced floor votes on issues that otherwise would have died with little notice.

Those included bills to raise the age of consent for sexual conduct from 14 to 16, and to ban campaign contributions by companies that do business with the state and counties.

The voting record that emerged likely will provide the GOP with fodder for the 2002 elections, and Republicans think they can claim credit for some bills that passed this year.

House Speaker Calvin Say, D-18th (Palolo-St. Louis-Kaimuki), acknowledged Democrats were more willing this year to approve bills to allow privatization and to cut the cost of the health fund in part because they were alarmed at the losses of seven Democratic incumbents in last year's elections.

The drug problem

Legislation that would require treatment instead of prison time for first-time nonviolent drug offenders failed despite Cayetano's push for the program in his State of the State address.

At the onset of the 2001 session, Cayetano proposed a "shift in philosophy" in treating drug offenders and presented legislation modeled after programs in California and Arizona.

But the House and Senate Judiciary committees rejected Cayetano's proposal, arguing it interfered with the recently created Drug Court Program, which allows offenders to avoid prison by successfully completing drug treatment.

Lawmakers also refused to repeal laws that imposed mandatory jail time for some offenses involving crystal methamphetamine.

The state budget did include an additional $4.4 million for drug treatment programs for prison inmates, but that was only half of the $8.8 million increase Cayetano had proposed.