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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 9:19 a.m., Friday, May 31, 2002

Cayetano to sign 'consumer' bills opposed by GOP

Associated Press

Gov. Ben Cayetano said he would sign into law today four "consumer" bills that he said will define the differences between Democratic and Republican candidates in this fall's elections.

"This was one of the most productive legislative sessions in a long time where the consumers and the people of Hawai'i came out ahead," said Cayetano, who scheduled a bill signing ceremony in his office.

"It think the Democratic Legislature showed and demonstrated it's back on track again ... standing up to the oil companies and the big insurance companies and doing what they thought was right for the person on the street," he said. "That's Democratic politics and we're going to win in November if we can pull together and get that message across."

Cayetano said he'll sign bills to regulate health insurance races, impose gasoline price caps, create a state-run prescription drug discount program for all residents and a Medicaid prescription drug discount for lower-income residents.

Earlier this week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Linda Lingle denounced the gasoline cap and health insurance regulation bills and a pending bottle recycling bill as anticompetitive, saying they'll only hurt the business climate and lead to higher prices.

She said the three bills are all set to take effect in a few years, "because those people who voted for those items know that they are bad ideas that won't work, but they wanted to pacify the public right now ... to make themselves look good."

Lingle said the bottle bill does nothing to create a market for recyclable products and without it "all you have is separated garbage."

To address high gasoline and health insurance prices, the state needs to repeal laws that have restricted competition, not try to regulate them, Lingle said.

Cayetano said the differences between Lingle and the Democratic candidates for governor "all will be fleshed out in the campaign, if we play it right."

"Her messages primarily are shaped by Communications Pacific, that same organization that does the (public relations) for Chevron and all of these folks," he said. "And if she goes by the script, she will eventually stumble along the way and demonstrate the kind of a plan that she has is not workable."