Have you checked out The Hot Seat? It's our opinion-page blog that brings in your elected leaders and people in the news and lets you ask the questions during a live online chat.

On The Hot Seat last week was Gov. Linda Lingle.

John: What are you doing to improve our ports and our harbors? This discussion has all but fallen through the cracks. Our harbors are long overdue. This is our lifeline.

Lingle: You are right, John, to identify our harbors as our "lifeline," for indeed most everything we use and consume comes in through our harbors, and they have fallen behind in their ability to keep up with our state's growth.

Therefore, we are working with harbor users on all islands to update expansion and improvement plans. It is important that we work directly with those who use the harbors most.

Bill Prescott: Because teachers are constantly transferring out of disadvantaged areas, these schools are and have been the training grounds for new hires for over 35 years. Those most in need of qualified, experienced teachers suffer as a consequence. Therefore, would you support a resolution that in effect would say: Before a school may fill a vacancy with a tenured teacher, they would have to qualify a probationary teacher for tenure as a replacement for the one they plan to hire?

Lingle: Because I lived on the island of Moloka'i for 10 years, I am very aware of the situation where the least-experienced teachers are sent to the most "disadvantaged" communities. What was even worse is that many teachers would fly home to Honolulu as soon as school let out on Friday. This meant that teachers had little connection to the school.

I have introduced legislation last year and again this year to pay bonuses to nationally board-certified teachers who would be willing to teach in those schools currently in "restructuring," which means schools that have performed poorly over a period of years. This approach would help bring some of our best teachers to where they're most needed.

You can help get this proposal adopted, Bill, by contacting your legislators and ask them to support this common-sense idea.

America1: My question relates to the mayor's new $3.4 billion-$6 billion, 30-mile rail route and the newly proposed toll road that may be built in the same central corridor area.

Do you support one or the other? And do you think the public on O'ahu should be allowed to vote on both traffic issues on an upcoming ballot?

What about the billions in cost to build both?

We wanted property tax relief and got rail. The public wants to know what you think on this important topic.

Lingle: Both the city's proposed rail project as well as the state's possible Nimitz flyover projects are meant to deal with a worsening traffic problem.

I read in today's paper the city's estimate of 2017 for a completion date, and as you mentioned, it is a multibillion (-dollar) project.

On the other hand, the state project would be in the $700 million range and is proposed to be a public-private partnership, which means a substantially smaller public expenditure of funds. It is important to note that this is a concept only at this time, but it does recognize that we will need to find alternative ways to fund very large projects that do not continue the drain on taxpayers.

Mark J. Valencia: Re: Huge hurricane insurance premium increases. Your administration's insurance commissioner has approved a rate filing by State Farm that has resulted in a huge increase in premiums for hurricane insurance — as much as 45 percent in one year! State Farm states that the reason for this increase is "the amount of losses State Farm has encountered due to our nation's hurricanes that caused damages around the country." According to State Farm, " this rate increase has affected many ... across the state." I feel it is unfair for Hawai'i's consumers to have to pay for State Farm's poor business judgment elsewhere that resulted in its overexposure to losses. Following this logic, another rate increase may be in store because State Farm is facing lawsuits that could cost it hundreds of millions of dollars for not fully paying its insured for homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina. I am also disappointed that your administration seems more concerned with protecting the nation's largest insurer from the consequences of poor business decisions than providing relief for the already financially stressed ratepayers and voters of Hawai'i. If many homeowners in Hawai'i cannot afford hurricane insurance premiums and a hurricane hits, Hawai'i's social fabric in general will be adversely affected. Would you please address this issue?

Lingle: Our main objective is to make certain that insurers remain in the Hawai'i market so that our homeowners and businesses are able to purchase insurance.

The state's insurance commissioner analyzes all requests for increases and does his best to balance the cost to consumers with making certain that the insurers remain in Hawai'i.

In addition, we have maintained during my entire time in office the Hawai'i Hurricane Relief Fund, which currently has $180 million. This money is available should insurers leave the market after another severe hurricane. This will allow us to continue to make certain our homeowners and businesses are able to obtain insurance.

Steve Doyle: Governor, in your State of the State address you reiterated that we have to change our economy from one based on land development to one fueled by innovation, new ideas generated by our universities and a highly trained work force.

Yet, in an earlier Hot Seat chat, (state House) Speaker Calvin Say stated that this was against our market system, and that the construction industry was the economic pillar of our economy and, without it, Hawai'i's economy would not be able to stand.

How do you plan to reconcile this fundamental political and philosophical difference of opinion?

Lingle: My vision for Hawai'i's future is that we are able to have a rising standard of living for all people, reduce our overreliance on land development and preserve our unique lifestyle.

This means that we need to change the foundation of our economy from one that relies on land development to one that relies on human potential and innovation.

I believe construction is an important part of the economic mix in our state and is likely to remain so as we meet the pent-up demand for affordable housing, new life-science and technology incubator space, renovations to our airports and harbors, and continued improvements to our highways.

What I'm suggesting, however, is that an overreliance on land development as the foundation of our economy is not sustainable over the long term because land is finite, while new ideas and innovation are infinite.

Jeremy, Navia, Matt: Governor Lingle, we are an eighth-grade class at Highlands Intermediate in Pearl City. We all voted for you in the Kids Vote Hawai'i. Congratulations! We were wondering what is the hardest part of your job? Thank you.

Lingle: Thanks for voting for me in the Kids Vote Hawai'i, and for taking the time to write to me today.

I think the hardest part of my job is that I don't have time to meet with everyone who wants to meet with me. I wish I could meet with everyone, because almost everyone has something worthwhile to say or an important issue they want to discuss.

Doing the Hot Seat today does give me a small chance to hear from people. I also do a radio show twice a month where I get telephone calls from residents.

I just wish there was more time.

Thanks again for writing.

Barney Ho: With all the extra surplus in the state economy, and (un-) employment is apparently at an all-time low, is there any way possible to use the funds for much-needed improvement to our education? We need more schools, and public housing is on top of many agendas, but how do you propose to do that?

Lingle: We have proposed approximately $300 million in new DOE school funding this year as well as another approximately $300 million for operations and construction for the University of Hawai'i.

In addition, we have proposed new funding for academies at middle and high schools that concentrate on increasing STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills; a scholarship program for high school graduates who will complete the academy program and study STEM disciplines in college; and a tax savings plan for parents who want to save as much as $20,000 a year for their children's educations.

In the area of housing, we have proposed $50 million to improve existing public housing units, $50 million for additional affordable rentals and $50 million more for for-sale projects.

Commaaina: Governor, don't you think it would be a good idea for state Civil Defense to conduct confidence-building public meetings on each island to discuss the problems it experienced on Earthquake Sunday and measures taken since then to improve emergency communications to the public? State Civil Defense is resisting holding these meetings. What do you think?

Lingle: I think it important both to review past experiences and focus on the future.

We have done an extensive review of what happened on Oct. 15, 2006, the day the earthquakes hit, and have published a report on how to improve our response in the future.

We are now focused on a statewide education program to better prepare for the future.

Older Warrior Fan: I was so impressed by your address last week. I am interested in the part about making Hawai'i a wireless Internet state. Do you propose that companies compete for the business and let the marketplace work? I like the idea of schools and state offices being online, like some free hot spots in Hawai'i. Can we see some movement by the end of the year with this great improvement to connect all with a computer?

Lingle: I appreciate your interest in our vision to provide free wireless Internet access at all state buildings.

We will begin with the libraries, the schools and other state buildings.

In addition, we want to make certain that all people in Hawai'i have affordable wireless Internet access in order to fully participate in the global economy.

We will work with the county governments as well as the private Internet providers to determine the best way to proceed.

To make certain that this vision is implemented in a timely fashion, which I have defined as all state government buildings having access by 2010, I have proposed the creation of a new state position — chief information technology officer.

This position is something other states have implemented to make certain these efforts stay on track. We propose to do the same.

State's top elected official fields questions — some of them pointed — about what she sees as public needs and her priorities