By David Shapiro

Wonder why Hawai'i's state government seems stuck in the mud?

Just look at the latest Advertiser poll showing that while only 39 percent of residents approve of the performance of the state Legislature, more than half approve of their own district representatives and senators.

Obviously, a lot of us who think we have a bad Legislature are perpetuating the problem by voting for bad legislators.

We won't likely move Hawai'i forward until we scrutinize our friendly neighborhood lawmakers more carefully — and cast our votes more wisely.

The Legislature's low standing in public esteem is well-deserved. Lawmakers have failed for years to act effectively to reinvigorate our slumping economy, reform public schools, restore integrity to political campaign financing and modernize civil service.

Legislators consistently duck tough decisions that might offend the special interests they depend on to support their ownÊre-election — especially public worker unions.

They've given us a government dedicated to serving itself ahead of the public interest.

Last year's signature legislative legacy was to grant binding arbitration to the Hawaii Government Employees Association in place of real collective bargaining.

The priority this year is pushing aside other public needs to find money in a tight budget to pay the predictably generous arbitrated raises.

Recent concern has focused on pointless squabbles between Democrats who control the House and Senate and Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, but the dysfunction runs deeper.

Former Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano was similarly frustrated by a Legislature he sharply rebuked for engaging in small-time politics and pandering to special interests.

A year before he left office, Cayetano said, "Very few things today, in my opinion, are ... decided by philosophical or ideological basis. The people I served with had more life experience. The Legislature is different today, which, in a way, is why I'm kind of glad I'm going to be leaving. I'm not sure there's a lot of people there who really stand for anything."

Persistent small-time politicking is painfully on display this year in a legislative session that was supposed to be devoted to high-minded collaboration on pressing issues like school reform and drug addiction.

Legislators have instead harassed Lingle with petty proposals to abolish her tourism liaison, strip her ability to manage state spending and interfere with her appointments to state agencies.

Lawmakers threatened to kill administrative and judicial pay raises recommended by the Legislature's own salary commission — after taking raises for themselves last year.

Other inglorious proposals would have gutted the Campaign Spending Commission's ability to police legislative elections and protected the right of union members to smoke at public schools in violation of federal law.

Lawmakers with a lick of political sense would see that such pettiness and self-serving is beneath them.

But nothing seems beneath this Legislature, which suffers from small-minded leadership and an arcane system in which committee chairs can arbitrarily veto good bills opposed by vested interests in whose pockets they reside.

These are the things that earn the Legislature its dismal approval rating, but lawmakers get away with the cheap politics because these are not the things we judge them on come election time.

We give local legislators too much credit for looking sharp waving signs on roadways and showing up at Little League openings and high school graduations, while failing to do our homework on their policy decisions and ties to special interests.

The only path to a better Legislature is better-informed voters less willing to hand out style points to public servants who represent their own interests before ours.

David Shapiro can be reached at dave@volcanicash.net.