PUHI — State House Finance Committee and Senate Ways and Means Committee leaders kicked off a statewide series of budget meetings Wednesday night on Kaua‘i. The “Lawmakers Listen” series of meetings moves to the Big Island and Maui next, with
PUHI — State House Finance Committee and Senate Ways and Means Committee leaders kicked off a statewide series of budget meetings Wednesday night on Kaua‘i.
The “Lawmakers Listen” series of meetings moves to the Big Island and Maui next, with several subsequent meetings set for various portions of O‘ahu, said state Rep. Marcus Oshiro, D-Wahiawa, chair of the House Finance Committee.
Donna Kim, D-Moanalua-‘Aiea, chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, was also in attendance, along with state Sen. Gary Hooser, D-Kaua‘i-Ni‘ihau, and state Reps. Roland Sagum, D-West Kaua‘i-Ni‘ihau, and Jimmy Tokioka, D-Lihu‘e-Koloa, at the first meeting, Wednesday in the Kaua‘i Community College cafeteria.
While the lawmakers did make a formal presentation on the financial mess the state is in — a projected $2.1 billion revenue shortfall from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2011 — and $2.3 billion budget-deficit solutions the Legislature is proposing, the primary objective of the meetings is to listen to constituents in communities across the state, Oshiro said.
So, in addition to hearing about the public’s distaste for furloughs or layoffs for state workers, the lawmakers also heard concerns about invasive species, water quality, and changes to the state-worker prescription drug plan that mean many have to order their non-emergency prescriptions via mail order from a pharmacy in Florida, said Tokioka.
And Tokioka said he shares the frustration of state workers unsure whether or not they will be furloughed or laid off, because it has been difficult even for lawmakers to get information from Gov. Linda Lingle’s administration about the plans.
Going unanswered are simple questions to Lingle, submitted in writing by lawmakers, about important issues like farmers getting their crops to market without state inspectors to give them the OK and cuts to the state film office budget despite that agency generating money for the state, Tokioka said.
The two chairs of the state Legislature’s money committees, Kim and Oshiro, “have sent numerous communications to Lingle,” with no response, Tokioka said.
The Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund issue, wherein a decision was made to hire a Florida pharmacy to mail-order non-emergency prescriptions to state and county workers and retirees in an effort to reduce costs, is a prime example, Tokioka said.
Language barriers, the need to keep certain medicines refrigerated, and other problems have temporarily stalled implementation of this mail-order, prescription-drug plan first reported in The Garden Island newspaper and later becoming front-page news in the Honolulu dailies.
“Did we do the right thing trying to save money” without first talking with the affected employees and retirees? Tokioka asked.
He said Dr. Lianne Malapit, a pharmacist, told him one of the workers or retirees had to pay $1,700 up front for medicines that did not arrive until a month later.
Regarding the budget mess, one of the handouts from the lawmakers indicates two common-sense options, either reducing expenditures or increasing revenues, and Tokioka said lawmakers might also come to a conclusion that the option of raising taxes might have to be taken.
“We have to look at a big-picture plan” that includes more cuts and what he called “revenue-enhancements,” politician talk for “tax increases.”
Tokioka said this is the third straight year leaders of the legislative money committees have traveled across the state listening to what the people have to say, their concerns, worries, what’s being done wrong and what’s being done right.
