Posted on: Sunday, March 13, 2005

Traffic, housing key issues

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Trying to live up to their promises to help with pocketbook and quality-of-life concerns, Democratic leaders in the Legislature said they are confident that important steps to reduce traffic congestion and provide affordable housing can happen this session.

Tax relief, which attracted the most attention when the session began in January, is still in play, but interest has diminished now that the state Council on Revenues has predicted slower long-term revenue growth.

Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican who has outlined similar themes, also remains positive about the direction of the Legislature, raising the possibility the session could turn out to be less partisan and more collaborative than in her first two years of office. "I'm feeling very good at this point in the process," the governor told The Advertiser's editorial board last week. "I'm very optimistic about this session."

Senate President Robert Bunda, D-22nd (North Shore, Wahiawa), said tax and cost-of-living pressures will not be resolved immediately, but that lawmakers understand people want relief. "It will continue to be a hot issue," Bunda said. "People are going to burst at the seams one day."

Hundreds of bills have moved through the committee funnels and, as the 60-day session reaches its halfway point, issues are coming into clearer focus.

Transit

With Congress preparing to re-authorize a six-year federal transportation blueprint, Hawai'i's congressional delegation has told state and city lawmakers they have to make a commitment to mass transit to be considered for federal money.

The leading option at the Legislature, approved by the House last week, would allow the counties to add a 1 cent-per-dollar surcharge to the state's general excise tax to pay for transportation projects such as a rail line on O'ahu.

Right before the initial deadline to move legislation, the Senate dropped plans for a new state transit authority, but the idea is far from dead.

Bunda said he will likely insist on a transit authority — at least for O'ahu — that would develop different transit scenarios to present to the counties rather than expect the counties to do it alone. "I think it's the most responsible way to do it," he said.

Lingle, a strong defender of home rule, supports giving counties a tax option but said she would have to take a closer look at a transit authority. House leaders have not called for a transit authority, which could create a wedge with the Senate when lawmakers reach conference committee.

Some Republican lawmakers and opponents of rail will fight a tax increase, arguing that rail has not yet been justified as the best solution for O'ahu's traffic congestion. "We're going to try to hold the line on taxes," said Senate Minority Leader Fred Hemmings, R-25th (Kailua, Waimanalo, Hawai'i Kai). "A lot of it is putting out the fires the House is sending over."

Housing

As housing costs on the Islands escalate, lawmakers are moving ahead with proposals to increase the availability of low-cost housing through government bonds for renovation and construction and a general excise tax exemption for developers.

Lawmakers will likely agree in some form to a bill, approved by the House, that expands the Rental Housing Trust Fund by diverting 10 percent of excise taxes on residential rentals to the fund and by increasing the share of conveyance taxes to the fund from 25 percent to 50 percent.

Lingle said she wants lawmakers and the public to connect higher tax and housing costs to problems such as homelessness. She said her proposals to raise the standard income tax deduction — which would push more people at the bottom from the tax rolls — and to provide more affordable rentals are related.

"We will have an explosion of homeless people if there is not serious action this session on affordable housing," Lingle said.

Politics

While leaders of both parties describe the session so far as more collegial than the past two years, tensions remain. Democrats, who increased their majority after the November elections, have sent both obvious and subtle messages to remind Lingle of their power.

Democrats have criticized the governor for not proposing more spending for public education and narcotics control, the two issues that caused the deepest rifts last session and spilled over into the elections.

Lingle withheld money the Legislature approved last session for education reform and drug treatment — releasing the funds on her own timetable — and some see the Democrats' recent moves as an attempt to draw the governor into another skirmish.

"It's just for show. It's not very imaginative," said House Minority Leader Galen Fox, R-23rd (Waikiki, Ala Moana, Kaka'ako).

Democrats also moved out several bills that would weaken the governor's power, such as requiring her to hold public hearings to explain her rationale for withholding money approved by the Legislature.

House Speaker Calvin Say, D-20th (St. Louis Heights, Palolo, Wilhelmina Rise), said lawmakers are trying to send a message to Lingle that she cannot ignore or bypass the Legislature. But he said it stemmed from the legitimate frustration of educators and drug-treatment providers who were disappointed when money was held up last year.

Say also said the new spending on education and drug control, which many lawmakers have now put ahead of tax relief as priorities, is to make sure the education reform and drug control measures that passed last session have enough money.

"It's just following up so that we, as Democrats, don't let these things become failures," Say said.

Lingle said the Council on Revenues projections validate her cautious approach to new spending and her decisions to closely evaluate the education and drug-treatment money last year instead of blindly releasing what the Legislature approved. "I don't think people elected me to do that," the governor said. "I'm not an accountant who just would say, 'OK, cut checks.' "

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.