Lingle cuts $3.6M in social services with line-item veto

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Gov. Linda Lingle is making line-item vetoes that will cut about $3.6 million from 20 social service programs around the state.

The governor said yesterday that lack of money and the need to "restore fiscal discipline" affected her decision to make the line-item vetoes in Senate Bill 1305.

Among the cuts are $400,000 in subsidies to the Kahuku Hospital, $500,000 for youth service centers in Kalihi — which the Lingle administration called illegal because it did not specify any recipients — and $450,000 for the Health Department to provide oral care to underserved children.

Also cut was a $300,000 subsidy for the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children Sex Abuse Treatment Center; $200,000 for the operation of the Waipahu Community Adult Day Health Center and Youth Day Care Center pilot project; and $250,000 for Wahiawa General Hospital.

Despite the cuts, Lingle left roughly $7.4 million for other programs, including $350,000 for Kahuku Hospital.

The bill passed by the Legislature called for $10 million from the Tobacco Settlement Fund for the various social service programs. The administration had originally sought to have that money designated to the emergency "rainy day fund." The fund contains about $50 million, and state finance officials have pointed to that balance when talking to bond raters.

"While I believe many of the programs funded by this bill are worthwhile, the state's current fiscal condition cannot be ignored," Lingle said in her veto message.

She noted that even with the state facing a $230 million shortfall next year, the Legislature's version of the budget leaves the Hawai'i State Health System, which runs the state's hospitals, completely unfunded in the second year of the biennium. That position means "the budget passed by the Legislature is not fiscally sound," the she wrote.

"We have a limited amount of your tax money that we have to spend, and we simply can't do everything," Lingle said yesterday. "Some of these projects were really good projects."

The governor said she, Human Services Director Lillian Koller and Health Director Chiyome Fukino met for several hours to discuss each program before making decisions about which programs to cut.

House Speaker Calvin Say and Senate President Robert Bunda objected to the line-item vetoes.

Say wondered what criteria the governor used for determining which programs get money. It is up to the Legislature, as the policy-making branch, to decide which programs should be helped, he said.

"This particular bill has far-reaching effects," Bunda said. "The Legislature saw that there were a lot of healthcare providers that needed funds, that needed help."

Say said the health system could request more money next year.

Lingle has vetoed other bills that would have extended a hotel-construction and remodeling tax credit; set up a position in the Department of Education to coordinate repair and maintenance of schools; and required the Health Department to establish an aeromedical emergency medical services system.

In all, the governor will be vetoing 50 bills.

Another bill vetoed was Senate Bill 658 which would have required all hospitals to provide emergency contraceptives to sex assault victims. Lingle said she couldn't understand why lawmakers did not exclude St. Francis Medical Center's two facilities, which object to the law on religious grounds.

Lingle said making the bill law would have threatened the existence of the hospitals since it called for shutting down any facilities that did not comply.

The people "of the entire Leeward Coast would have been left without any hospital facility," Lingle said.

Say said he did not think St. Francis would have shut down if the bill became law.

Lingle noted she signed a separate bill allowing pharmacists to dispense emergency contraceptives.

Lingle said that other bills she vetoed were inappropriate because they attempted to micromanage agencies, which are an administrative prerogative. Still others, she said, stripped counties of their "home-rule" authority.

The bill the governor said she had the most difficult time with was House Bill 133, which gave immunity for leaving an unharmed newborn at a hospital within 72 hours of birth. Research showed that in other states, such legislation ended up with negative, "unintended consequences," she said.

Other bills that were vetoed:

• Senate Bill 768, reinstating binding arbitration for state workers represented by the Hawai'i Government Employees Association. Lingle said she doesn't like the idea that state workers could go on strike. "But based on our recent experience in binding arbitration, and I would say this would apply to both the union as well as the employer, people tend to be unreasonable."

Reaction to Lingle's rejection of the bill was strong. "By vetoing the binding arbitration bill, she is driving the state and HGEA's 25,000 public employees toward a showdown and a devastating statewide strike," said HGEA executive director Russell Okata. State Rep. Joe Souki, D-8th (Wailuku, Waiehu), said "the consequence of the veto can literally shut down the state."

• House Bill 289, establishing 15 educational complexes that came with committees appointed by the Board of Education, and House Bill 32, allowing public schools to charge parents up to $20 in textbook fees annually per student. Lingle called them "fake reform" bills that detracted from her own efforts to get legislators to put a constitutional amendment question on the ballot asking voters if they wanted seven independently voted school boards. "We'll come back next year with real reform," she said.

• Senate Bill 1088, establishing a tax of $10 a month to finance a program of long-term care for the elderly and disadvantaged. Lingle said it would provide only one year's worth of benefits while burdening those who can least afford it with a new tax. Lingle favors a tax credit for those who purchase long-term insurance, which was incorporated into the same bill. Democratic lawmakers said tax credits by themselves would not help those who can't afford the insurance.

Say and Bunda said they will meet with the leaders from their respective houses by Tuesday to determine whether to reconvene in special session in order to try to override the vetoes. But Say indicated he would prefer to work on the kinks on bills before next year's session rather than waste the expense of special session. "I don't see it happening," Lingle said.

Overall, "I thought it was a very good session," said the first Republican governor in 40 years. "There are some legislators on the Democratic side that I really like very much, I enjoy working with them. There are others who are not that much fun to work with. I just think that's natural."

The 50 bills she is vetoing, the second highest number since statehood, fall far short of the 84 vetoed by former Gov. Ben Cayetano during his first year in 1995. She said she believes the amount will go down once she and legislators have a better working relationship.

Bunda said that despite differences with the governor, he appreciated her candor during the session.