January 2008 | Small Business News
Legislature Convenes January 16 - Senate Going Paperless
It's that time of year again - the State Legislature will convene its regular session on Wednesday, January 16 at 10 am. The 60 - working day session will extend until the first week in May.
Budgets, spending, the environment, law enforcement, the homeless, health and labor legislation will be at the top of the agenda during the opening days. An estimated 3,000 plus bills will be introduced with only about 10% ending up on the Governor's desk.
This is a major election year so that will help color the session.
Beginning with the 2008 legislative session, the Hawaii State Senate will adopt a paper reduction initiative to limit the number of paper documents generated and consumed by the Senate and the community. The initiative will replace many printed documents with electronic copies, in an effort to improve management of the state's waste stream.
"Each year, the legislature considers measures to reduce waste, and 'source reduction' is a primary strategy in the state's waste management policy," said Senate Clerk Carol Taniguchi. "If all of us use electronic formats for document storage and retrieval, the Senate can significantly reduce the nearly four and a half million pages we used in the 2007 session. That was 875 cases of paper, at a cost of approximately thirty-one thousand dollars."
Looked at another way, all that paper totaled close to 22 tons, the product of roughly 525 mature trees.
Rather than print copies of documents, the Senate will provide electronic copies via daily CDs, and online through the Legislature's web site www.capitol.hawaii.gov. The public can also view electronic documents in the Capitol's Public Access Room (State Capitol Room 401) and Legislative Reference Bureau Library (Room 005). The Legislature's web site also offers the public updates on bill status and committee hearings via Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds.
"We announced our theme of sustainability in the 2007 session," said Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, "and we're hoping this initiative can set an example for the rest of the state. Our staff has worked very hard to develop alternatives to what has in the past been a very paper-intensive process. Hard copies will still be available to those who need them, but we believe that the majority of those who used to work from paper copies will be just as happy with electronic versions, especially with drafts and other documents that are only important for a very short period of time."
For those who need them, hard copies of documents will still be available from the Senate Print Shop. However, the Print Shop will no longer mass produce these documents for automatic distribution.
Other recent initiatives will also help the public access legislative information in convenient - and paperless ways:
Expanded wireless capability in the Capitol building will allow laptop-equipped members of the public to access the internet from most public areas, including hearing rooms;
Senate hearing notices and Orders of the Day will include links to bills, resolutions, committee reports, and testimony;
Public testimony submitted to Senate committees will be scanned and posted online.
"For example, a member of the public who attends a Senate hearing or floor session with a wireless-enabled laptop computer will be able to access the agenda on the Internet and retrieve relevant documents and testimony with a click of the mouse," said Senate Clerk Taniguchi. "The same would be true of someone following the proceedings on television via local public access stations. We hope that improved access will mean more participation."
The Senate piloted paperless initiatives during the 2007 legislative session, with several Senators relying on electronic copies of committee reports, rather than the numerous loose-leaf binders that had been employed in the past. Some committee testimony and documents were available online during the recent special session, as were numerous documents produced in connection with the Joint Senate/House Investigative Committee looking into the Bureau of Conveyances during the legislative interim.
You can count on SBH to keep you informed about the status of business and tax bills during this session.
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