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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, May 6, 2001

Editorial
Legislature 2001: A new beginning

It's fair to say the 2001 Legislature has exceeded the expectations of many observers. It's not clear exactly how that happened.

Republicans justifiably claim much of the credit. Elected in sufficient numbers last year, they were able to hold Democrats' feet to the fire on a number of issues. Simply put, Republicans were able to subject issues to floor votes, where Democrats were forced to take a public stand.

Taking a somewhat more cynical view, House Speaker Calvin Say attributed the session's productivity to the public distraction caused by the teacher strikes. Apparently that allowed lawmakers to get on with the people's business without the usual interference from, well, the people.

Civil service reform

Certainly the hallmark of this Legislature will be its crossing the line, at long last, into the never-neverland of civil service reform. That's a dull title for a crucial bit of business long overdue.

Gov. Ben Cayetano had set the stage for this issue, challenging the state and its workforce to adapt to 21st-century opportunities and realities.

The package of civil service reform bills that emerged this year includes one measure that would restore the right of unions to strike, thus bypassing expensive awards by overly generous arbitrators; another sets in motion a process by which government services can be privatized and displaced public workers laid off; and a third creates a new universal health benefits trust fund for public employees.

Stunning though these accomplishments were, they are not in themselves enough to constitute true "reform" of state and county government.

And Cayetano is probably right that lawmakers moved these bills along not so much out of concern for streamlining government as out of an intense struggle to find the money to balance their budget.

More work needed

The long-range effort to convert Hawai'i's hide-bound and heavily unionized civil service into an efficient, 21st-century workforce will take more than the passage of two or three laws.

For one thing, it requires a strong commitment by lawmakers, which is surely thrown into question by Senate President Robert Bunda's apologetic offer to talk to the unions and "come up with probably a better bill" next year.

Civil service reform will not get far with that sort of back-sliding. That said, however, the new laws can't successfully be implemented without complete cooperation from the unions. The laws aren't punitive; they are meant to improve all our lives — including public workers.

Strikes and money

Lawmakers added to the confusion preceding the strikes by Hawai'i's public-school teachers and university faculty by claiming to have found the money to fund the unions' demands while the governor was still trying to bargain with them.

Not only was that uncalled-for interference in the negotiations, but more important, too much of the money identified was coming from one-time sources when the pay hikes obviously would be recurring expenses.

We have yet to see how lawmakers ultimately decided to fund the union pay raises, but we smell trouble ahead when we hear continuing talk of "revenue enhancement" — that is, tax increases — or legalization of gambling next year.

It's with a sigh of relief that we see compensation of our teachers and professors come up to respectability. We have a teacher shortage that will get worse if we're unable to recruit competitively.

Education reform critical

But paying teachers adequately hardly solves our overall problems with public education. The state's system of governance leaves much to be desired: It's impossible to know whether to blame the governor, the Legislature, the schools superintendent, the Department of Education, or the Board of Education for our present fix, since they're all in charge to some extent. Reform in the area of governance is desperately needed.

One disappointment this year was failure of a bill to move principals out their union and onto a merit contract basis. We hope to see that one pass next year.

To the good: no tax hikes, and the tax cuts effectuated last year were allowed to stand; and the minimum wage was raised.

Bills that failed that should have passed: Fluoridation, campaign finance reform, the tour wholesaler tax, a requirement to send first-time non-violent drug offenders to treatment instead of to prison and an earned income tax credit. Also, lawmakers abandoned their plan to require deposits on bottles and cans because the industry said it would come back next year with a better proposal. The bottlers and canners should be held to that commitment.

All in all, well done, lawmakers.