Tomorrow is the 33rd day of the 60-day legislative session.

Gov. Linda Lingle saw some highs and lows last week as the Legislature passed the halfway mark of the session.

On Monday, a Senate bill to acquire Turtle Bay sailed through its first of three committee referrals, giving the governor latitude to craft a plan to acquire the North Shore property.

On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee compromised on a controversial bill that would retroactively raise the mandatory retirement age for judges, which could deprive Lingle of the ability to appoint a new state Supreme Court judge when Chief Justice Ronald Moon hits 70, the current mandatory retirement age.

The compromise would raise the mandatory retirement age to 80 for judges appointed after November 2008. It now moves to the House Finance Committee.

Also on Thursday, the House Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs approved a bill that would limit the governor's use of emergency powers to only civil emergencies or natural disasters.

On Friday, the House killed a measure to cap noneconomic damages for lawsuits against doctors — for the second time. The original medical malpractice reform bill did not survive crossover.

When looking back at the first half of the session, Lingle's policy adviser Linda Smith said most of the governor's proposals are still alive in some form, although about half of her 180 original bills have been killed for the session.

"About 85 percent (of her proposals) are alive and moving either in their original form or incorporated in a bill one of the members of the Legislature introduced," Smith said. "We recognize that sometimes it might have a different number and different name, but if it's a good idea and the law needs to get changed, it gets changed."

According to Smith, the administration is happy with several housing bills, such as one that would increase the amount available for Hula Mae multifamily program loans from $400 million to $500 million, another that would allow the Hawai'i Community Development Community to resell affordable housing units and several bills that would increase the money available in the rental housing trust fund and the dwelling unit revolving fund.

Disappointments include the death of most of the governor's tax-relief proposals, except for one that would give tax credits for home improvements to help residents age in place and another that's required by the Constitution: a mandatory tax rebate.

The Legislature has still not determined how to issue the refund, but so far has not embraced the governor's preference to mail out rebate checks that taxpayers can use immediately.

Coming up:

On Wednesday at 9 a.m., the House will hold a hearing on Senate Bill 958, which proposes a 10-year moratorium on genetically modified taro.

Those who wish to submit written testimony are asked to do so by Tuesday at 9 a.m.

Testimony can be mailed, faxed or dropped off. And two e-mail addresses have been set up to accept testimony.

Those who plan to testify in person can e-mail SB958InPersonTaro@Capitol.hawaii.gov.

Those who plan to only submit written testimony can e-mail it to SB958WrittenOnlyTaro@Capitol.hawaii.gov.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.