EDITORIAL
Lingle's speech offered positive surprises
| • | Full text of Gov. Linda Lingle's State of the State address |
Gov. Linda Lingle's State of the State address yesterday adds substantive, positive direction to the young legislative session.
In her speech, Lingle continued to flesh out some of the more sweeping generalities of her campaign. We're already familiar with a majority of the proposals Lingle made yesterday, but a few of them were big surprises.
Lingle responded in kind to the olive branch offered by House and Senate leaders last week. But it was clear that bipartisan cooperation requires a lot more than symbolism.
Restoring trust
The culture of "who you know" superceding the virtue of "what you know" is heavily entrenched in the Aloha State. So we're delighted with Lingle's proposals to stem the widespread perception that political favors are for sale.
The task now is to pass meaningful campaign finance reform — without lawmakers exempting themselves from the rules — and to create an omnibus procurement bill that brings total transparency into government contracting.
The criteria for winning government contracts must relate to merit and affordability, not personal relationships and campaign contributions.
Regarding penalties against those who abuse the public trust, we see no problem in principle with sending offenders to prison, or treating expansive gifts to public officials, such as lavish golf and entertainment outings, as bribery. After all, that's what they are.
Appropriately, Lingle has included the state's obligation to Native Hawaiians in the category of restoring trust. She has pledged to resolve the ceded lands issue "for once and for all."
This is a divisive issue in Hawai'i, and achieving a resolution demands tough decisions and compromises.
Education
We'd stop just short of saying, as Lingle did yesterday, that "Hawai'i's public school system is broken." Too many good things are happening in our public education system today to tar it with such a broad brush.
Still, few would suggest that Hawai'i is even close to delivering on the aging promise of "an education second to none." Yesterday Lingle proposed important solutions.
We fully support Lingle's call to remove principals from their HGEA membership. They're "a part of management," she said. "They have no place in a union."
We also agree with Lingle that better education will come from "allowing more charter schools, and then nurturing them" — instead of the present practice of treating them like unwanted stepchildren.
Perhaps the most important education idea advanced by Lingle, one on which she campaigned hard, is to decentralize the system by establishing seven locally elected school boards. Although this proposal taps into a genuine sentiment, it misses the point.
Governance is important, but it is not the central issue facing our school system. That is getting more resources to teachers, more resources into the classrooms and improving the interaction between individual teacher and individual student.
Economy
Lingle laments that the state doesn't have the money yet to implement her plan to repeal the general excise tax on food and medical services. Instead, she seeks "to reduce the income taxes of those who earn the least," by increasing the standard deduction for state income tax returns to 50 percent of the federal standard deduction within three years, and eventually to 100 percent.
That's a substantial savings to everyone who pays state income taxes: The state standard deduction now is $1,500 for singles and $1,900 for married couples filing jointly, while the respective federal numbers are $4,600 for singles and $7,850 for married people.
It means 18,000 taxpayers would no longer have to file a state income tax return, while 44,000 would no longer have to itemize their deductions. Unlike President Bush's federal proposals, Lingle's tax cut would directly benefit lower-income wage earners and quickly stimulate the economy.
We agree with Lingle that Leeward Coast residents badly need jobs. But we object to the use of tax credits specifically tailored to one project, in this case an aquarium at Ko Olina. That important resort area, we feel, will flourish without a state subsidy.
One point that Lingle stresses — the Hurricane Relief Fund is untouchable, she says — and another point she avoids — that money will soon have to be found for public worker pay raises — suggest a possible battle later in the session.
She is right that the next hurricane is inevitable, but not that the purpose of the hurricane fund is "to care for our people during the massive recovery" that will follow. The money is to provide hurricane insurance for homeowners whose private insurers flee the market after a storm — a purpose for which $200 million is far more than enough.
