Depending on which Kaua’i legislator you talked to, the 2003 state Legislature, which adjourned last night, was “fun,” or “very difficult.” “This session was very difficult because of one basic reason,” said state Rep. Bertha Kawakami, D-south and west Kaua’i,
Depending on which Kaua’i legislator you talked to, the 2003 state Legislature, which adjourned last night, was “fun,” or “very difficult.”
“This session was very difficult because of one basic reason,” said state Rep. Bertha Kawakami, D-south and west Kaua’i, Ni’ihau. “The lack of financial resources made everyone much more adamant in either maintaining their funding levels or obtaining additional funding and, thus, being a lot less amenable to compromise,” she said.
“In any case, we completed our work with a balanced budget which disavowed any tax increases and refrained from using the hurricane fund, while at the same time maintaining our commitment to our number-one priority, education,” said Kawakami, vice chair of the House Finance Committee.
“I think we did very well,” said state Rep. Ezra Kanoho, D-east and south Kaua’i. Agreeing with Kawakami, Kanoho said balancing the budget without a tax increase or raiding the hurricane relief fund while meeting educational needs and actually restoring some cuts to education and human services marked a major legislative achievement.
“Even though demands kept increasing,” the fiscal 2004 state budget (for the year beginning July 1, 2003) is actually smaller than the current budget, Kanoho commented. “We didn’t touch the hurricane relief fund.”
Some of the state’s rainy-day fund was taken to fund high-priority human-services needs, he said. “It was a fun session; a lot of issues,” and some unfinished business, he Kanoho said. “It means that we’ll have a chance to (next year) iron out issues that didn’t move.”
A highlight for Kanoho was the “willingness of the Legislature and administration to demonstrate a good-faith commitment to the Native Hawaiian people,” in making payments to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for revenues generated on ceded lands.
“The actual resolution is ongoing,” he said of negotiations to reach a long-term solution to the state’s obligation to pay OHA for revenues generated on ceded lands, or those lands that went from the Kingdom of Hawai’i to the U.S. government to the state government when Hawai’i became a state in 1959.
The state will continue to pay OHA 20 percent of undisputed funds until the permanent resolution is arrived at, and working toward that final resolution will be Kanoho’s priority until the 2004 session starts, he said.
Another bill, granting counties and the state governments immunity from lawsuits as a result of accidents on public lands, passed this session, Kanoho said. “We have the obligation to warn, the responsibility to warn” people about potential dangers on the shorelines and in the mountains, he said.
But, the public also has a responsibility for individual safety, too, he said.
While $50,000 was approved for the East Kaua’i Water Users Cooperative maintaining former Lihue Plantation sugar irrigation systems, there wasn’t enough money to fund that and also appropriate money to fund re-opening of the tropical fruit disinfestation facility near Lihu’e Airport, he said.
“It was OK,” said state Rep. Mina Morita, D-north and east Kaua’i, about the session. “The financial situation was really challenging. I’m glad we were able to balance the budget without a general excise tax increase or a raid on the hurricane fund,” said Morita.
She hopes an economic upturn will ensure the Legislature won’t have to go through another tough session like the one just completed.
The economic situation even tempered bills that passed, like those authorizing either new or extended tax credits for people installing renewable-energy systems, like solar panels, she said.
Some “sleeper” legislation that passed may have great impact in the state, including a bill that would authorize victims of sexual assault to receive contraceptive devices to avoid unwanted pregnancies, said Morita.
While Morita as chair of the House Energy & Environmental Protection Committee pushed for a bill to set aside a portion of royalties from geothermal development on the Big Island for hydrogen research, a majority of her fellow legislators thought otherwise.
“Unfortunately, that fund got raided, and put into the general fund,” she said of a special fund made up of geothermal royalties established to manage geothermal resources in the state.
There is lots of competition for a finite amount of federal funds for hydrogen research, and it would have been important for Hawai’i to show a united front and pass her proposed legislation, she said.
State Sen. Gary Hooser, a Democrat representing all of Kaua’i and Ni’ihau, said he was “disappointed” that he couldn’t do more to support education, including not only the state Department of Education budget but also repair and maintenance of existing public schools.
“Overall, I’m pleased with the results of the session,” said Hooser, who yesterday completed his first session as a senator.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
