EDITORIAL
Lingle left door open for cooperative session

Gov. Linda Lingle's second State of the State speech yesterday was a well-reasoned and relatively conciliatory address that could pave the way for a productive 2004 session.

But the operative word there is "could." Lingle clearly knows she faces an uphill battle in persuading the Democratic-controlled Legislature to embrace her agenda. So she sought to position Democrats by urging them to be "statesmen" who look to the future over their own political agendas.

"When history judges our actions, let us not be seen as quarreling and ineffective politicians who were primarily motivated by self-interest and the interests of our parties," she said.

Good advice, not just for lawmakers but for the Lingle administration as well.

In two areas where Lingle and the Democrats had — and continue to have — strong differences of opinion, Lingle sought to go over the heads of lawmakers and straight to the people with proposed constitutional amendments.

Battle of the budget

The first is over budget policy. Lingle complained in the past that the Legislature sent her an unbalanced budget. The Democrats responded that Lingle failed to understand their budget intentions. In several areas, they said, they did not appropriate for the second year of an ongoing program, but they fully intended to come up with the money when the time came to spend it.

Technically, the Legislature cannot pass an unbalanced budget since states cannot print money to cover shortfalls. So this is somewhat an argument of semantics.

But Lingle apparently feels strongly enough about the issue to call for a constitutional amendment requiring the Legislature to pass "a balanced budget."

One wonders what good this would do since all the Legislature need do for a balanced budget is to simply proclaim it so.

Another constitutional amendment is a proposal to break up the single statewide school board into seven smaller elected school boards.

Both House and Senate leadership effectively declared that idea dead on arrival in their opening-day speeches. It is tough to see how compromise could be reached on this matter. It might be better for the two sides to agree to disagree and move forward in other areas where there are signs of compromise.

And indeed Lingle highlighted several such areas, including a "weighted" formula for funding schools based on educational need, empowering principals to function as "true leaders," and giving full and fair support to charter schools.

One idea Lingle broached yesterday seems unneeded. She called for a Statewide Education Standards and Accountability Commission to set rigorous standards and then allocate money to schools so they could meet those standards.

That sounds an awful lot like what the current elected state Board of Education should be doing.

Crime and drugs

On crime and drugs, Lingle already has a full head of steam following a statewide drug control summit convened by Lt. Gov. James Aiona.

In her remarks yesterday, Lingle appeared to suggest that her approach to drug use will focus as much on law enforcement and punishment (that is, prison) as it will on treatment.

It is crucial that the progress Hawai'i has made toward a more enlightened treatment approach not be lost to a popular "get tough" stance. Nuanced balance is needed here, not simplistic solutions.

Substance abuse, particularly with ice, has generated much "publicity and compassion," Lingle said. But then she added, "acting on that compassion with solutions that work has been largely unsuccessful."

She then ticked off a number of initiatives that tilt to the law-enforcement side, including tougher and longer sentence guidelines, liberalized wiretap laws and yet another questionable constitutional amendment authorizing so-called "walk and talk" and "knock and talk" programs that allow law enforcement to actively confront possible drug dealers or users.

Good proposals

There were a number of proposals that legislators should enthusiastically embrace. These include moving thousands of eligible young people and low-income adults into Medicaid, $18.5 million for expanded mental health services across the state and an ambitious law that would mandate 20 percent of all electricity sold in the state come from renewable sources by the year 2020.

In all, it was a solid, comprehensive speech that offered plenty of work for both the administration and the Legislature. With cooperation and compromise — on both sides — this can be a successful session.