Lingle, House Democrats promise cooperative effort
By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
Gov. Linda Lingle and House Democratic leaders met for the first time yesterday and pledged to make every effort to work together and communicate.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
Lingle said she is hopeful she and the House "can just focus our attention on how best to make things better for the families here in our state.
Gov. Linda Lingle met yesterday with members of the state House leadership. At left is majority leader Scott Saiki, who is next to House Speaker Calvin Say.
"My approach is a cooperative one, and ... there are going to be issues where we have strong disagreements, but myself — as well as our staff — will focus on the issue and not on the person that's involved," she said. "And the people of Hawai'i are expecting that of us and that's the way we're going to behave."
Lingle's meeting yesterday with 11 members of the House Democratic leadership follows a Tuesday gathering with Senate Democratic leaders. Lingle called both meetings cordial and wide-ranging.
Lingle said she and the House leadership talked about issues such as economic development and reducing government regulation.
Balancing the state budget will be among the larger challenges for Lingle and the Legislature in the session next year. Lingle said she is considering a hiring freeze on non-essential state workers to alleviate the state's tough budget situation. She said her staff is working to identify essential workers, which include teachers and public safety officers. But she emphasized she wanted to talk with lawmakers about the budget before discussing specific options she is considering.
"Obviously I have some of my own ideas on it, but I want to be sure I have an overall view from their perspective before we begin that," she said.
"The House members are much more experienced with the budget than I am and they are very well-aware of the challenge we face going forward. They understand that steps are going to have to be taken to get costs under control and the hiring freeze could just be one of those mechanisms that we have at our disposal."
House Speaker Calvin Say said the House will consider Lingle's campaign promises — among them eliminating the general excise tax on medical services — "but she'll have to come up with a financial plan that is sound and balanced."
He said House Finance Committee budget briefings that are scheduled to begin Jan. 2 may be delayed if Lingle has not made all her Cabinet appointments by then. Lingle has so far named only one department head, budget director Georgina Kawamura, and should be announcing at least two more Cabinet appointments next week.
While the House in recent years has been the arena for heavy partisan bickering, Say said he didn't expect to see the same political atmosphere this time around, partly because the House Republicans no longer have the number of seats required to pull bills out of committee. The Republicans now hold 15 seats in the 51-member House, while they held 19 seats in the past two years.
House Majority Leader Scott Saiki agreed that the House should be able to get over partisan hurdles.
"I think the House Democrats are very focused this year," he said. "We want to look at the hard issues, we want to help to solve them. I think we'll put the politics aside."
Say also said the leadership would like to meet with Lingle once a month "to just chit-chat about how things are going, how the administration is doing and the fact that we're here to support her as much as we can during this period of transition."
Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
