Lingle weighing her veto options

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

A number of measures could fall victim to Gov. Linda Lingle's veto pen if they make it out of the state Legislature before it adjourns Thursday, among them a long-term-care bill that could have a tough time in the Senate today.

"If it's going to make it, it's going to make it by a hair," Bunda said.

The House and Senate will be meeting today and Thursday to take final votes on some 300 bills. A bill making it out of the Legislature this week will be forwarded to the governor, who has 45 days to either sign it, allow it to become law without signature or veto it.

The Legislature can override a veto with a two-thirds majority in both houses, but would have to return for a special session to do so. Democrats control more than two-thirds of the seats in both houses.

Lingle had proposed a tax-credit bill and took a staunch position against a plan pushed by Democratic legislators for a state program to provide long-term-care services for the elderly and disabled paid for through a monthly tax.

But Senate Bill 1088, scheduled for final votes before the House and Senate today, incorporates both provisions, granting up to $120 a year in tax credits for those who purchase long-term- care insurance and imposing a $120 annual tax for a state program.

Lingle stopped just short of saying she would veto the long-term-care bill while reiterating her opposition to taxes.

"I would predict that that's one of those issues where the Democrats are split among themselves — they know it's a tax, they know it's a heavy burden on the poor and I think they're feeling a lot of pressure on that issue," Lingle said. "I've tried to make it clear throughout the sessions that this is a tax that people just can't take right now."

Lingle said she thinks lawmakers should look at separating the two ideas.

"They put both of those concepts in the same bill. To me that's just playing games," she said. "You either work for one or work for the other. You can't really be for both. To me, they really didn't want to address this issue or they wouldn't have structured the bill in that fashion."

Bunda yesterday said he also had concerns about the measure and wasn't yet sure whether he would support it.

House Majority Leader Scott Saiki, D-22nd (McCully, Pawa'a), said he disagreed with Lingle's characterization that tax credits and a tax could not work in concert. "The credit offsets the tax paid through the program," he said. "Long-term care is a longstanding issue and, in a few years, it will present a crisis for the state's thousands of residents who will not have the necessary services they require."

Lingle said she is also unhappy about Senate Bill 768, which reinstitutes binding arbitration for the six units of the Hawai'i Government Employees Association. "My focus on restoring fiscal discipline was really tied to making certain that when wages are offered to our collective bargaining units, we can afford to pay for them over the long term, that we have a recurring source of revenue," she said.

Under binding arbitration, Lingle said, "taxpayers are always at a disadvantage" since an arbitrator does not need to take issues such as fiscal condition into consideration. "That is a real troubling bill as well."

Lingle said she is still weighing the arguments on other controversial bills such as ones dealing with campaign reform and emergency contraceptives.

House Bill 459, the much-scrutinized House campaign-reform bill, would bar companies seeking nonbid government contracts worth more than $25,000 from donating to candidates for offices that have contracting authority.

A previous version of the bill pushed by the House would have banned contributions from companies seeking lowest-bid contracts as well, and would have applied to candidates for all offices, including state lawmakers. That version also would have banned direct campaign contributions from corporations from corporations and labor unions.

Lingle said she wants to meet with the executive directors of the Ethics Commission and Campaign Spending Commission before deciding whether she will support the bill. "We thought that real reform was important and I hope there's some way that we can salvage some kind of campaign finance reform with this bill," she said.

Also yesterday, Lingle responded to an angry charge by Sen. Gary Hooser, D-7th (Kaua'i, Ni'ihau) during a Senate floor debate Friday that the Republican administration had threatened reprisals against Democrats for voting against two Lingle nominees to the University of Hawai'i's Board of Regents.

While avoiding words like "reprisal" and "target," Lingle said the administration would be busy in the off-season.

"I made that point very early on that I will be campaigning in the 2004 elections even though I'm not up for office," Lingle said. "I will travel the state and let citizens know which bills were voted on by their representatives and senators and which ones weren't. I think previously when the session would end, they felt their votes really weren't known by anybody and there was no one out letting the public know about these things."

Bunda said he has no problem with Lingle's promise to inform the public of lawmakers' voting records. "That's okay. I believe the Legislature will stand by its decision to put out bills or reject bills," he said. "We can defend every bill because it went thorough a rigorous process."

Saiki said that Lingle is "free to make whatever speeches she wants." However, he said, "the governor should not be a rubber stamp for the Legislature's actions and neither should the Legislature rubber stamp the governor's ideas. People voted us to be independent and to do what's in the best interest of the entire state."

Advertiser reporter Lynda Arakawa contributed to this report. Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.