State senator challenges timing of governor's veto
By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
A state senator who lost her battle to win a $75 million tax break for the Ko Olina resort is challenging Gov. Ben Cayetano's veto, saying he missed the deadline by several hours.
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If the challenge by Senate Vice President Colleen Hanabusa is upheld, the 13 bills Cayetano vetoed Monday — including measures providing the Ko Olina tax break, campaign spending reform, a 4 percent tax break for commercial construction and a rent relief extension for airport concessionaires — may become law.
Sen. Colleen Hanabusa says Cayetano missed the deadline.
In a letter to Attorney General Earl Anzai, Hanabusa reasoned her challenge this way: According to the state constitution, the governor has 45 days to consider bills but must give the Legislature at least 10 days' notice of intent to veto a bill. The constitution also stipulates that to override a veto, the Legislature must convene no later than noon on the 45th day.
That means, Hanabusa said in her letter, that Cayetano had to give his veto notice no later than noon on the 35th day, which was Monday. The Senate clerk's office received Cayetano's final veto messages at about 5:15 p.m. Monday.
"I believe that the governor has missed his deadline by at least five hours and 15 minutes," wrote Hanabusa, D-21st (Kalaeloa, Makaha).
Anzai was out of the country yesterday. The governor's press secretary, Kim Murakawa, declined comment last night.
Hanabusa lobbied aggressively for the Ko Olina tax credit, which would have given the developer of the West O'ahu resort a major financial incentive to move ahead with plans to build an aquarium and marine science center. The resort is in Hanbusa's district, and she said that the project would create hundreds of jobs in an area that has struggled with unemployment.
Cayetano said he vetoed the measure because he believed that taxpayers should not help shoulder the burden for a specific developer and that the state already offers a 10 percent tax credit to all developers for such projects.
Senate President Robert Bunda, D-22nd (Wahiawa, Waialua, Sunset Beach), said legislators had accepted a midnight deadline on previous occasions, but he said he thinks Hanabusa's argument has merit.
"It had to be before midnight, I think that was traditionally the case," Bunda said of the veto deadline. "But what we have here is the contention that 12 midnight is not really lawful and we violated the constitution; the deadline should be by 12 noon that day. And I think this is a good case where if you look at the timing and you count and you take the constitution, it is something that is relevant.
"We may have a possibility of having those bills which were vetoed and sent down in that last minute, that those bills may be law," Bunda said.
What happens next is unclear. Bunda raised the question of who would determine whether the bills are law, and said lawmakers may want to, as an alternative, override the vetoes of the 13 bills in question anyway. It takes two-thirds of the House and Senate to override a veto.
"This brings new light to the whole special session question," he said. The Legislature has until July 9 to meet to override any vetoes.
But Hanabusa said "the Legislature cannot override a bill or bills which have not been properly noticed for veto."
House Speaker Calvin Say said today there has been no push from majority Democrats in the House nor from the public to hold a special session to override some of Gov. Ben Cayetano’s vetoes. The feeling among House leaders is that the vetoed bills can wait until next year, he said.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
