EDITORIAL
2005 Legislature has bright prospects

State lawmakers open their 2005 session today with the usual dose of optimism and high expectations.

And that makes sense. Tax collections are up, the direct result of a healthy economy. That means legislators can spend a little more time saying "yes" and a little less time struggling to keep existing programs afloat.

There is also carryover optimism from last year, when the Legislature took a serious run at two of Hawai'i's most difficult public policy issues: education and drug addiction.

This year, according to Capitol Bureau reporters Gordon Pang and Derrick DePledge, there is likely to be a shift toward "quality-of-life" issues such as traffic and affordable housing.

Gov. Linda Lingle has signaled her own interest in these areas, particularly affordable housing and homelessness.

As always, we urge the Legislature to bear down on a handful of key problems and deal with them thoroughly rather than running scattershot in different directions.

We also applaud signs that the Republican administration and Democrats in the Legislature are determined to find common ground and cooperate.

One promising area for such cooperation is in expanding and improving early childhood education, surely a high-priority topic for anyone concerned about the future of this state.

Beyond the "big" issues, there are several areas of unfinished business from previous Legislatures that should be settled this year. They include:

• Death with dignity. Hawai'i's long record of progressive social policy would be enhanced by passing a death-with-dignity measure this year.

• Long-term care for the elderly. Under the leadership of former first lady Vicky Cayetano, a strong first step toward a universal long-term-care plan was accomplished. It's time to finish the job.

• The bottle law. After too much delay, a recycling or bottle law program has been put in place. But early experience shows there is a need to improve the program quickly, before the public loses interest in this worthwhile effort.

There is more. But if the 2005 session can do something constructive and wise on housing and traffic and deal with a handful of those other outstanding issues, it will be a productive session indeed.