Posted on: Monday, May 23, 2005

ISLAND VOICES

By Brennon T. Morioka

The Advertiser made some excellent points in its editorial detailing the high points and low points of the state Legislature's 2005 session ("A tale of progress, missed opportunities," May 8).

That was followed by a disingenuous op-ed piece from Brickwood Galuteria, Democratic Party of Hawai'i chairman, that insulted the intelligence of anyone who paid attention to what actually took place at the State Capitol during this legislative session ("Legislature accomplished much this year," May 9).

Galuteria tried to put the best possible face on Democratic House and Senate legislators' actions. But once again what Hawai'i residents actually saw was a painful demonstration of the majority party appeasing its power base — the unions — while leaving a very, very small piece of the budget pie to the sizable majority of Hawai'i residents who don't belong to unions.

Take affordable housing, for instance. This is arguably the biggest challenge facing our state, given skyrocketing real estate prices and the high cost of living. But, the Democrats responded with a piecemeal approach when sweeping changes were desperately needed.

They increased the conveyance tax on certain real estate sales and shot down important initiatives of Gov. Lingle and her 100-member affordable housing task force, which, by the way, was mandated by the Legislature.

Why didn't the Democratic legislators prevent raids on state housing funds? Why didn't they streamline the permit process for affordable housing projects? Why didn't they give for-profit and nonprofit developers financial incentives to build such projects?

Interesting how Galuteria sidestepped these questions on affordable housing, which has become one of the major issues facing the people of our state.

Then there's the issue of tax relief — or lack of it. Our families and the business community pay some of the highest taxes in the nation, and Gov. Lingle has been working hard to reduce that burden.

Again and again, she has introduced an initiative to raise the standard deduction, meaning that 27,000 individuals would no longer have to file state tax returns and 78,000 more would see their taxes cut. The Democrats said "no" even though the Hawai'i Tax Commission has asked for the tax relief for 20 years.

The governor wanted to help residents earning $40,000 or less by granting tax credits for purchases of necessities — food, medical services and nonprescription medicines. The Democrats said "no."

The governor wanted to stimulate the economy and help businesses by lowering the amount they pay into the state unemployment insurance tax fund. Even though the fund has a huge surplus, even though cutting the tax wouldn't have cost the state a dime and even though we've enjoyed the lowest unemployment rate in the nation for much of 2004 and 2005, not to mention the lowest in 14 years, the Democrats refused to go along with this common-sense, logical approach.

The majority party showed its partisan colors on the issue of workers' compensation reform — the No. 1 legislative business concern for many companies, big and small. Because the majority party listened to special-interest leaders instead of the business community, no progress was made in fixing this broken and costly system.

To make matters worse, the Democrats blocked the director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations from implementing administrative rule changes that would have saved companies $98 million a year. Gov. Lingle approved the changes and will likely veto this "handcuff" bill, but the majority party has the power to reconvene and override her veto. There's something terribly wrong with this picture.

While bipartisan progress was made in areas such as increasing traffic safety, increasing public safety, giving greater autonomy to University of Hawai'i, and fixing our harbors to accommodate the new interisland Superferry project, the session's overall result left our residents wanting more — much more.

This brings me back to Galuteria's rosy assessment of the Legislature's mediocre performance. He's either way out of touch with what happened or doesn't want to admit to the truth.

The House and Senate had a golden opportunity to demonstrate "true long-term leadership" in addressing the challenges facing our state, as The Advertiser correctly pointed out. Instead, they "missed many opportunities."

It's sad that once again the people of Hawai'i have to say: "Maybe next year."

Brennon T. Morioka is a former chairman of the Hawai'i Republican Party. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.