Highlights from the session
Advertiser Staff
PASSED
• Public worker raises
Lawmakers set aside about $325 million from the state general treasury for raises over the next two years for members of the Hawai'i State Teachers Association, University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly, Hawai'i Government Employees Association, the United Public Workers and airport firefighters.
• Right to strike
The Legislature repealed mandatory arbitration as a way of resolving stalled contract negotiations between the state and counties and the public worker unions. The new law restores the right to strike for all public workers except prison guards, police, firefighters and some medical personnel. Gov. Ben Cayetano signed the bill into law yesterday.
• Privatization
The new law authorizes the governor and county mayors to contract out public services as they see fit, or to set up systems of managed competition to allow public workers to compete with private companies for the opportunity to provide public services. It also allows for layoffs of public workers when public services are privatized. Gov. Ben Cayetano signed the bill yesterday.
• Public worker benefits
This law will create a new Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund to overhaul the way health benefits are provided to state and county workers. The bill will eliminate health plans that are now provided through the public worker unions. The amounts the state and counties pay for public worker health benefits will be decided in bargaining between the employers and the unions. The trust fund then would provide public workers with the best package of benefits it can buy with the available money. Gov. Ben Cayetano signed the bill yesterday.
• Minimum wage
Lawmakers agreed to increase the state minimum wage from $5.25 an hour to $5.75 an hour Jan. 1, 2002, and to $6.25 an hour Jan. 1, 2003.
• Consent for sex
This measure would raise the legal age of consent for sex from 14 to 16. In cases where 14- and 15-year-olds voluntarily have sex with adults who are at least five years older, the bill would allow the adults to be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. The bill excludes cases where 14- and 15-year-olds are married to their sex partners.
• Hate crimes
After years of debate lawmakers agreed to impose longer prison terms for criminals who select their victims because of the victims' sexual orientation, race, religion, national origin, disability, ethnicity or national origin. In those cases, the penalties for Class A felonies would be increased from a maximum of 20 years in prison to life.
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FAILED
• Campaign finance reform
Lawmakers nixed a plan to establish a pilot program for the 2002 Honolulu City Council elections providing for public financing of up to $80,000 for the campaigns of candidates who accept only nominal donations from all other donors. Another bill to ban contractors doing business with the state or counties from making campaign contributions also died.
• Tour wholesaler tax
Lawmakers rejected a plan to impose the state's 7.25 percent hotel room tax on wholesale tour companies that sell hotel rooms as part of their packages. Depending on how the tax changes were structured, this bill would have allowed the state to collect an extra $30 million to $60 million a year.
• Earned income tax credit
A plan to provide an unspecified state earned income tax credit to residents failed at the end of session. The measure was intended to help working, low-income Hawai'i residents.
• Food tax credit
Lawmakers said they didn't have enough money to provide a proposed tax credit of up to $70 per person to partially offset the impact of the state's 4 percent excise tax on food. This proposal was expected to cost the state about $20 million.
• School computers
Gov. Ben Cayetano wanted to set aside $27.5 million for new computers for schools to reduce the student-to-computer ratio from six-to-one to four-to-one. Lawmakers declined, saying the state didn't have the money.
• Drug treatment
The House and Senate couldn't agree on a proposal to require treatment in lieu of prison for first-time non-violent drug offenders. Some lawmakers wanted to continue mandatory jail sentences for crimes involving crystal methamphetamine.
• Bottle deposits
Lawmakers finally abandoned a plan to require deposits on bottles and cans beginning on Oct. 1, 2002, to encourage recycling and reduce litter.
More on measures that passed or failed this session will appear in Sunday's Advertiser.
