Major state issues addressed during this session

Advertiser Staff

MASS TRANSIT

Traffic congestion is among the biggest quality-of-life concerns facing the state. Some of the worst traffic exists along the H-1 corridor, as people commute from growing neighborhoods on the Leeward side of O'ahu to downtown and back each weekday. Lawmakers, with the support of Gov. Linda Lingle, have voted to give counties the option of raising the state's general excise tax to pay for transit projects.

WHAT IT DOES

• Allows counties to add a 0.5 percent surcharge to the state's 4 percent general excise tax. The counties must approve a tax increase by the end of the year or the option will expire. The tax would not be collected until January 2007. It would end after 15 years.

WHAT IT MEANS

• People would pay higher taxes on virtually all consumer and business activity. By one estimate, the tax could cost a family of four an extra $450 a year.

• Honolulu is the only county actively pursuing the tax increase, which would be used to help pay for a rail line between Kapolei and downtown. Planning would start this summer and construction could begin by April 2009. Honolulu and state officials believe that a dedicated local funding source is necessary to qualify for federal transit money for the rail project. The tax is expected to generate $150 million a year.

• Honolulu will also work to relieve traffic through ferry, bus and traffic synchronization efforts.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Skyrocketing home prices have made the dream of owning a home impossible for many lower- and middle-income people in the Islands. The median price for a single-family home has hit $545,000 on O'ahu and $632,000 on Maui. Lawmakers would increase the conveyance tax, which is charged on the transfer of real estate, to help pay for affordable housing and land conservation.

WHAT IT DOES

• Increases the conveyance tax on all property sales over $600,000 and on residential home sales bought as investments or second homes. The increase would more than double the taxes collected now, to about $36 million, with a greater share going into the Rental Housing Trust Fund.

WHAT IT MEANS

• Developers who plan to build low-income housing would get first priority on loans and grants from the Rental Housing Trust Fund. The tax would also provide money to preserve more environmentally or culturally sensitive land.

• The existing tax is among the lowest in the nation, but critics note that, given the state's high median home price, it targets more than just the wealthy.

MINIMUM WAGE

Recognizing that workers on the lowest end of the wage scale need help to deal with the high cost of living, lawmakers increased the minimum wage. Restaurant owners and other businesses objected, arguing that it would trigger pay raises for other workers and increase the costs of doing business.

WHAT IT DOES

• Increases the minimum wage by $1 by 2007. The wage will move from $6.25 an hour to $6.75 next January and to $7.25 by January 2007. The tip credit, the amount businesses can deduct from the hourly wages of workers who earn tips, will remain at 25 cents.

WHAT IT MEANS

• Workers who earn the minimum wage will see their first pay increase since 2003. Businesses will have to absorb the higher labor costs.

• Lawmakers said the increase reflects promises at the start of the session to help workers struggling to make ends meet. Gov. Linda Lingle had wanted any increase coupled with a break on the amount that businesses pay into the unemployment insurance fund.

BOTTLE LAW

The controversial bottle redemption law took full effect in January, leading to some long lines at recycling centers and consumer complaints about inefficiency. But the process — people get a nickel back on bottles and cans if they recycle — has improved and lawmakers have created incentives to get more retailers to offer recycling.

WHAT IT DOES

• Takes $3 million from the deposit fund for rebates for retailers who offer recycling centers at their stores. The rebates would range from $30,000 to $90,000 per store. Retailers would have until the end of the year to qualify.

• Makes another $3 million available as incentives for recyclers, nonprofits and other groups to create recycling centers.

WHAT IT MEANS

• The main obstacle to the law, according to environmentalists and some legislators, has been that most retailers have not been willing to participate as recycling centers.

• Foodland became the first major store to voluntarily offer recycling, and lawmakers hope the incentives will persuade more retailers to get involved.

SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY

Voters approved a constitutional amendment last November giving the Legislature the authority to make more information about convicted sex offenders public. Lawmakers wanted to balance the rights of the public to learn where dangerous sex offenders live and the rights of convicts who have served their sentences. A string of horrific sex crimes this spring, both here in Hawai'i and across the country, made their decision more relevant and timely.

WHAT IT DOES

• Allows the state to place information about sex offenders on a state Web site without first having to go through the courts.

• Provides that a sex offender's name, photo, home address and work street and ZIP code be posted on the Internet. For some lesser offenders, their information will be available to the public at only the Hawai'i Criminal Justice Data Center and at police stations.

• Allows sex offenders to petition the court to have their personal information taken off the Internet or kept away from the public after 40 years, or a shorter time for lesser offenders.

WHAT IT MEANS

• The public will have greater access to information about sex offenders living in their neighborhoods.

• Law-enforcement officials believe that people will be safer and will take steps to protect themselves if they know that sex offenders are nearby. But some counselors and civil liberties activists believe that public access to the information might make it more difficult for sex offenders to find housing or jobs and could force some underground.

DNA COLLECTION

DNA, which contains a person's unique genetic code, is increasingly being used to convict or exonerate criminal suspects. The state is trying to expand a DNA database to help law enforcement. Lawmakers have decided to collect samples from all convicted felons. They rejected suggestions to take samples from juveniles and all those arrested for felonies.

WHAT IT DOES

• Requires all convicted felons to submit a DNA sample. Samples could be collected from a swab taken from the inside of the mouth.

(The state already collects samples for people convicted of murder, attempted murder and sex crimes.)

WHAT IT MEANS

• Police will have more samples on file that could be used to solve criminal cases. But felons could also request post-conviction DNA analysis of evidence that might exonerate them.