Small Business News
June 2004 | Online Edition
Missed Opportunities in the 2004 Legislature
By State Senator Fred Hemmings (R)
25th District: Kailua-Waimanalo to Hawaii Kai
The pounding of the gavel will herald the close of this Session. What happened is best summed up with these poignant words from the poet John Greenleaf Whittier: "For all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: it might have been."
Hawaii entered a new era of politics in the election of 2002. One political party no longer had absolute control over the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government. With the departure of a monopoly and a emergence of a fledgling two-party system, there were high hopes that we could work together cooperatively to find common solutions to the problems challenging the people we are elected to serve. At the opening of session, we, your Republican colleagues, offered the majority party our hand of cooperation. If you recall, I stated that we hoped our efforts would not be met with partisanship and blind allegiance to the status quo. I'm pleased to report that there were incidences where we cooperated and made good things happen.
Hawaii RX is something we can all be proud of. During the final passage of Hawaii RX, it was heartwarming for me to see the more ecumenical amongst the majority party recognize the Governor for her cooperation and leadership with this issue. Likewise, the Republicans in the Senate recognize the majority party's leadership and spirit of bipartisan cooperation. When we work together everyone wins, especially the public. Unfortunately, incidences of us really working together to make good things happen were few and far between.
The good news is the education establishment finally acknowledged that the system is broken, or in the words of Superintendent Pat Hamamoto, is obsolete. The numbers also show that the taxpayers of Hawaii are very generous with education spending. The education status quo for years would have us believe otherwise. The Department of Education's operating budget of $1.8 billion divided by approximately 182,000 students confirms that the taxpayers just in operations are spending close to $10,000 per child, per year.
The governor, the CARE committee, along with community leaders and the House-Senate Republicans, proposed genuine and honest reform, and what emerged was SB3238, a Trojan Horse, what you see is not what you get.
Ultimately, if SB 3238 were implemented, the system of governance would remain with the same cabal of leaders in the over centralized system. The people of neighbor islands and Oahu districts were denied the right to even vote on whether to dismantle the statewide system. SB 3238 was vetoed. The governor offered a genuine compromise by amending a bill that included five basic reforms. The compromise proposal, HB 2002 was passed. At best the alleged compromise, HB 2002 represents little reform and much delay. The truth is honest and systemic education reform was a missed opportunity of this session.
The Governor found a way to give a much-deserved negotiated pay increase to the teachers and the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly. Speaking of salary increases, we are now paying the price for the flip-flop the majority party did on binding arbitration. As predicted, the decision on binding arbitration for the HGEA, resulted in costs that future state budgets will have a difficult time covering. I know there's those in the majority party who will stand up and say that the HSTA and UHPA pay increases warrant HGEA pay raises. Republicans agree that most of the 23,000 HGEA employees do good work. It has to be emphasized that the HGEA workers do also get very good pay, and excellent fringe benefits. The HGEA has received close to 25 percent pay increases since 1998. Unions negotiate separately because reasonable people recognize that there are different needs and priorities. Once again the Democrats overrode the veto of HGEA 7.5 percent pay increases contained in SB 2724. The HGEA pay raises will result in huge future deficits. Unfortunately this could result in layoffs. The governor will do what needs to be done to keep vital services available to our citizens.
Senate Republicans also advocated a budget that would get us back to paying our bills with existing cash flow. It always amazes me that the majority party claims to be advocates of the sick, the elderly and the keiki, and yet holds public-funded human service programs hostage in a raid bills. We know that balancing the budget by raiding funds, depleting the rainy day fund, taking money out of the retirement system, dismantling one of the best run departments, and other short-term tactics will eventually lead to financial hardship for all the citizens of Hawaii. Republicans agree some vacant positions should be eliminated, but not at the expense of human services. I believe we all now realize that parts of the state's omnibus spending Bill HB 1800 created problems. Fortunately, our Governor offered to fix those problems and with the cooperation of the Chairman of the Senate Ways and Means, something was done. The majority party could not muster the votes to override the ill-conceived legislation to dismantle the DCCA, though the raid of $10 million from their compliance fund is problematic. The majority party failed to bring stability and fiscal accountability to the states financial management. Another missed opportunity.
In the wake of Lt. Gov. Aiona's initiatives concerning the Ice epidemic, the majority party picked up the gauntlet. After a summit and numerous hearings it became obvious that the road to recovery incorporated two components. First, rehabilitation when feasible and second law enforcement. Only half the job was done. The classic ploy of throwing more money at the problem addressed rehabilitation. Left out were a number of law enforcement initiatives supported by state and national law enforcement agencies. The majority party promptly overrode the Governor's veto of the problematic Ice bill SB 2003. It seems obvious that once again some in this Legislature are more concerned about criminals than protecting victims and law-abiding citizens.
A long time ploy of the majority party is to feign reform and delay it through an election cycle. If a gas cap, a bottle bill, and education reform are so critical, why was their implementation delayed? It must be noted that this session was incredibly adversarial to the executive branch of state government. Much was done to try and erode the powers of the Governor. After 40-years of one-party rule suddenly the power of the executive branch needed to be changed. The Democrats tried to dismantle her best-running department — DCCA. You tried to curtail the Governor's appointments to boards and commissions. You tried to take away her management of this building and abolish security guards that protect her, the lieutnant governor and his family. You tried to eliminate the pay of her advisors. In short, you tried to hamstring the governor's effectiveness rather than work with her to move our state forward. The question that must be asked is why? I believe that the people of Hawaii know the answer, as enunciated on the editorial pages of our states' newspapers: petty politics.
The aging and effete agents of the status quo are being challenged by a bold Governor and those of us across this state who support genuine change.
With the exception of Hawaii RX, an honest assessment of this session has to be that the majority party did indeed stifle the reform this government so desperately needs. In closing, our quest was clear, we could have planted seeds whose shade would nurture future generations. Regrettably, some of the seeds have fallen on the fallow ground of petty politics. Mr. President, my colleagues, we the Senate Republicans will continue to till the soil and nourish the seeds of a genuine new beginning. We remain optimistic.
Cartoon by John Pritchett, as published in Honolulu Weekly.
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