Posted on: Thursday, May 31, 2001

Legislators to return to fix errors in three bills

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Gov. Ben Cayetano yesterday issued a proclamation convening a five-day special session next week to address procedural errors in three bills.

Cayetano said it is unfortunate the Legislature needs to meet again in a special session that would cost $15,000, but that it was not the legislators' fault.

"I'm sad that they have to do it, but this is all due to a clerical error," he said. There was "nothing, I think, that any of the legislators could do. They don't do the clerical work. It is left to the staff."

The House clerk's office staff made a mistake when it sent the $215 million, two-year judiciary budget and the $14 million, two-year Office of Hawaiian Affairs budget to Cayetano on May 1, before the Senate had approved the bills. The governor's office sent the bills back to the Legislature that day, and the Senate approved the measures two days later and returned them to the governor.

But the state Constitution does not allow bills to be returned to the Legislature before the governor acts on them, so the Legislature must reintroduce new bills and pass them again.

The third bill, a bond authorization measure, must be updated because it contains specific references to the flawed Judiciary budget bill. While lawmakers take care of that detail, they will also update the bond authorization bill with the new, slightly higher state Council on Revenues tax collection forecast, said state Budget Director Neal Miyahira.

The Senate will also consider confirming the governor's appointments of Wayne Kimura as Department of Accounting and General Services Comptroller and Tim Johns as a member of the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

Cayetano said he hopes the Legislature does not expand its special session agenda beyond addressing the three flawed bills and his appointments.