August 2007 | Small Business News
The Hawaii State Legislature met in special session onTuesday, July 10 to override up to a dozen bills that Governor Lingle vetoed earlier in the day. By the July 10 deadline, the Governor vetoed 27 bills in addition to those that were vetoed in late April. The Legislature had enough votes to override 11 of the 12 bills on the agenda for Tuesday. The majority leaders from the Senate and House including Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, Reps. Calvin Say and Kurt Caldwell take questions from a throng of media reporters including Star Bulletin's Richard Borecca (on the right side with recorder)
Legislators at Special Session Override 11 Lingle Vetoes
Governor Linda Lingle signed more than 270 measures into law and originally sent 33 bills to the Legislature for veto by her deadline of July 10. (8 Vetoes made during the regular session were overridden by the legislature on May 1 and 3). It finally ended the 2007 Legislative Sessions.
The Democrat majority on both houses announced they would meet July 10 to override most of the vetoes. They refused to try and amend the bills as the Governor requested. The Governor subsequently removed six bills from her veto list leaving 27. Of those, the Senate chose 12 to override but in the end, only 11 were overridden in the House.
Absent from the Special Session were Senate Democrats Donna Mercado Kim and Lorraine Inouye and Republican Paul Whalen and Democrat Representatives Lyla Berg and Scott Saiki.
There were dueling press conferences during recess in the special session, one by Lingle and one by Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and House Speaker Calvin Say.
Lingle scolded the Legislature, saying “the process is flawed and the lawmakers know it” because in the final days of the 60-day working session in conference committee, Democrats regularly make changes to bill drafts and political deals behind closed doors and out of the public’s view without public input. Lingle called on the Democrat majority to extend the special session to fix technicalities or funding sources in 6 of the 27 bills that she planned to veto.
Democrats who called their own press conference in response, said they would not “fix” the bills, as the governor requested, either because they liked the bills as they were, or because it was too complicated to amend in one day.
Democrats have 43 of 51 seats in the House and 20 of 25 seats in the Senate - more than the required two-thirds for a veto override. They’d issued a press release a week earlier saying that all of the 33 bills that the governor identified as possible vetoes, were also possible veto overrides. They said they’d mustered enough support to override 13 of the governor’s 27 vetoes.
About 20 members of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) held a rally demanding the governor pass the pedestrian safety bill, because the state should put “people over roads.”
The governor was in her executive offices explaining to the press why she planned to veto the measure. While Lingle supports the bill (it was part of her legislative package), the dispute between the executive and legislative branches is over which state account the pedestrian money comes from. In conference committee in the final days of the session, Democrats switched the money source from the state general fund to the state highway fund. Lingle said by raiding the highway fund of $3 million, the state will miss out on a 4 to 1 match of federal highway funds – or around $12 million; she insisted she won’t release the money because there is money elsewhere in the system to improve pedestrian safety while being fiscally sound.
Another point of dispute was a Drunk Driving bill that allowed in special cases someone who had 4 DUI convictions and had lost their driver’s license for life, the ability to get it back. The bill was written essentially for one pastor, Democrats admit. The governor vetoed it and Honolulu City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle held a press conference a day earlier to say he was against it. Democrats in the House and Senate could not gain enough support for a veto override, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving made it clear the organization opposes the bill. The veto stands.
The governor also vetoed SB 1066 - relating to invasive species – which requiresthat all cargo containers are taxed at $1 each. Lingle says the state already has money to combat invasive species. But the Democrats overrode the veto.
Just before her July 10th noon deadline to veto bills, Lingle removed 4 from her list of 33, including: a bill that allows workers, not employers, to decide whether to use paid leave during family leave absences. This bill was opposed by SBH, the Chamber, NFIB and other business organizations;
The VEBA bill, allowing Hawaii State Teachers Association (not the state) to run its own health plan, excluding or accepting teachers as they choose, not the state EUTF.
Several controversial bills were removed from override by the Democrats, including:
SB1004 – Relating to psychologists ability to prescribe medication
SB1060 – Relating to workers’ compensation
SB1988 – Relating to honey labeling
HB0091 – Relating to public accountancy
HB0855 – Relating to workers’ compensation
HB1659 – Relating to procurement
HB1670 – Relating to the labor union “ ingenuity charter”
Lingle noted that when Democrat governors were in office for 40 years prior to her 2002 election, the governor’s vetoes were not overridden. In fact, until 2001, when the legislature overrode just one of then Gov. Benjamin Cayetano’s vetoes relating to raising the age of sexual consent to 16 years old, no vetoes had been overridden since statehood in 1959.
“Hawaii’s citizens expect their elected officials to work collaboratively to do what is in the best interest of all the people of Hawaii. The legislature failed to fulfill this responsibility and instead used pure political power to enact laws that will put the public’s safety at risk, could reduce our ability to repair highways and bridges, and could negatively impact our state’s fiscal integrity. It is clear to all who watched the special session today that the legislature had developed a calculated override plan and put it into effect, regardless of the negative consequences to the public,” Lingle says.
Democrats pledged to come back in 2008 to pass the bills the Governor vetoed which they did not have the votes to override this year. However, next year is a major election year and that will be part of any final decisions made.
SBH President and State Senator Sam Slom answers questions from Jim Mendoza at KGMB News.
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