Posted on: Tuesday, March 12, 2002

EDITORIAL
Failing bills represent the good, bad and ugly

In the byzantine world of the Legislature, no bill or idea is ever truly "dead" until the gavel falls on the last day of the session.

So the exhaustive list of bills that are "passing" or "failing" at the Legislature this year, as The Advertiser's Capitol Bureau cautions, is more an indication of direction than strong signal of their final fate.

Still, a picture of the 2002 session's final work product is beginning to take shape. Some of the failing measures should remain in that condition; they are poor ideas. Others, however, should be revived.

Here's a quick look at a handful of "failing" bills and our ideas on their final fate:

• Line-item veto. This proposed constitutional amendment would prohibit the governor from vetoing individual portions of the budget, in effect forcing a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. Lawmakers should let this one die. The line-item veto is an irritant, clearly, but it gives the governor flexibility and allows bad ideas to be redlined without having to go back into the entire budget.

• Drug treatment. This proposes a constitutional amendment that would require first-time nonviolent drug offenders to be sentenced to treatment instead of prison. It is a good idea, but we don't need to change the Constitution to make it work. Lawmakers should work within the existing structure of drug courts to make this idea a reality today.

• Debtor's prison. Another proposed constitutional amendment, this would allow people to be put in prison if they fail to pay civil settlements. This is an archaic idea that deserves to fail.

• Right-to-die. The bill would allow a competent, terminally ill patient to choose to take medication that would end his or her life. No question this is a tricky, difficult and emotional issue, but forcing the bill to fail is a way of avoiding reality. It deserves further debate.

• Curbs on gas prices or state regulation of the oil companies. These ideas are in direct reaction to Hawai'i's traditionally high gasoline prices and the collapse of the state's lawsuit against local oil companies. It remains clear that something must be done to stir competition and drive down prices, but there has not been enough study of these two fairly radical ideas to warrant their passage this year.

• Gambling. This would have authorized development of an exclusively licensed casino in Kapolei. It is failing for good and sufficient reasons.

Now, this is hardly an exhaustive list of the bills that are failing and does not even touch the many positive and forward-looking measures that remain alive. But it gives a sense of the kinds of decisions our lawmakers must make.

If they can keep in mind the needs of their constituents and the bipartisan spirit of cooperation that launched this session, they will end the year on a strong and positive note.