Legislative session opening with hopes for Hawaii’s working families

The Legislature begins its third consecutive session on Wednesday with the state Capitol closed to the public because of the latest surge in COVID-19 cases, while members of the state House and Senate feel pressure to do more to help working families and low-income residents as the economy rebounds.

The 60-day session, which is scheduled to end on May 5, will be conducted amid a backdrop of every elected state office — from the governor, lieutenant governor and all 25 Senate and 51 House seats — up for election this year, perhaps adding more urgency for legislators to produce tangible results they can campaign on and convince voters to return them to office.

“Even with a one-party Democratic state, the first rule is we can’t raise taxes because it’s an election year,” said political analyst Neal Milner.

A growing list of legislators, including House Speaker Scott Saiki and the Senate caucus, are calling for an increase in Hawaii’s $10.10-an-hour minimum wage following two years of efforts to help businesses survive and recover from the COVID-19 era economy.

Gov. David Ige — who is barred by term limits from seeking a third consecutive run for the governorship — told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he hopes to see the Legislature do more this session on issues including homelessness, child care, affordable housing, tax relief and funding for lower and higher education “after we just saw the bottom fall out of the state’s revenues,” as the pandemic took hold.

>> RELATED: Meet the 2022 State Legislature

“We don’t want to penalize small businesses and nonprofits,” Ige said. “It is about giving families the best opportunities to raise their standard of living and get a better life here.”

But Milner said he believes the Legislature’s conservative nature makes it unlikely to produce a long list of bold changes that would appeal to progressives young and old.

“Affordable housing will get somewhere, but legalizing marijuana has no momentum here,” Milner said. “The Legislature has a certain kind of caution. I don’t care that they’re all Democrats. They search for consensus the way religious zealots used to search for the Holy Grail. That’s a hard pattern to break.”

Water-filled, plastic barricades were temporarily erected around the state Capitol on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, but went down in the days that followed.

The street-level, outdoor Capitol rotunda remains accessible to the public. But plywood walls around the Capitol pools due to ongoing construction and renovation — that are unrelated to security — add to the image that critical decisions are being made out of public view, although hearings are available in real time on the House and Senate YouTube channels that also can be viewed after the fact.

Political and policy wonks will be watching how the Legislature especially responds to three recent issues: Ige’s budget proposal to pump $1 billion into the state’s Rainy Day Fund at the same time that many legislators would prefer to spend it, especially during an election year; concerns and possible limits after nearly two years of emergency proclamations issued by Ige related to COVID-19; and how the Legislature will react to a November ruling by the Hawaii Supreme Court that the Legislature’s long-time practice of last-minute “gut-and-replace” legislative overhaul resulted in a new law in 2018 that the high court ruled unconstitutional.

COURT ACTION on gut-and-replace came as the results of legislation (Act 84) aimed at public safety. But the measure ended up with new and unrelated language requiring hurricane shelter space in new state buildings without the issue being heard three separate times in both the House and Senate.

Common Cause Hawaii and the League of Women Voters of Honolulu successfully challenged the constitutionality of Act 84 and the Supreme Court split, 3-to-2, in overturning a prior Circuit Court decision in favor of the Legislature, with Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald in the minority.

A majority of justices condemned the practice of gut-and-replace but did not specifically ban it.

Months before the court’s ruling on Act 84, the 2021 legislative session came to a close just after lawmakers swapped out language addressing aerospace and replaced it with language that eliminated the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s annual allocation of transient accommodations taxes, likely to force the agency to ask legislators for money each year.

The new language, inserted in April, also allowed each county to assess its own transient accommodations taxes on visitors up to 3%. Oahu is now using it to help fund the city’s troubled rail project, which faces a projected budget shortfall of $1.97 billion and is expected to cost $11.48 billion to build.

Ige said the practice of gut-and-replace had gotten “out of hand.” How the Legislature reacts in the upcoming session “will be real interesting to see,” Ige said.

“It got so routine for people to take a bill and strip it clean that virtually every chair was doing it,” Ige said.

The Attorney General’s office was preparing to brief legislators on its interpretation of the Supreme Court’s ruling “to try and provide some guidance,” Ige said.

Speaker Scott Saiki said it’s unlikely that the House will introduce any bills or resolutions condemning or banning gut-and-replace but said he has reminded House committee chairs “that we would not entertain bills that weren’t vetted in conference and would not take such bill to the floor for a vote.”

But Milner and Colin Moore — director of the University of Hawaii’s Public Policy Center — are convinced that gut-and-replace will continue in some form “because it’s too useful” — especially with lawmakers only meeting for 60 days, Moore said.

“I would be willing to bet that there will be a group of lawyer-politicians working to figure out a way around it,” Moore said. “It arose because of a need and legislators are supremely talented at trying to figure out ways to do what they want to do. There’s going to be some workarounds, and I’m confident they’re going to figure out a way to change bills to meet the requirements the court has set out. I’m anxious to see how that’s going to happen.”

SAIKI AND SENATE President Ron Kouchi have been public in their willingness to limit the governor’s ability to issue emergency proclamations, specifically because of the ongoing spate of COVID-19-related proclamations, and to oppose Ige’s desire to add $1 billion into the Rainy Day Fund for future economic emergencies.

Saiki told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program last week that there likely will be a bill to limit the governor’s emergency proclamation powers “in whole or in part” through a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate, whether in session or not.

There also is little support in either chamber for Ige’s plans to pump up the Rainy Day Fund.

“Ige is like the parent trying to teach you to budget for college,” Milner said of the governor’s proposal and reluctance by legislators. “There is going to be this tension.”

Moore called Hawaii’s economic resurgence and the increase in state tax collections “remarkable. The question will be in how far they (legislators) will want to go in pushing progressive issues versus how cautious they will want to be. That’ll be the primary conflict between Ige and the Legislature, with legislators going into an election year.

“In some ways, this is the sort of session legislators love, as long as the economy continues on the rebound and tax collections are up,” Moore said. “It should be a good year for social service agencies and a good year for education, especially heading into an election year.”

Other issues under early consideration are programs and funding to diversify the economy further away from tourism, such as developing farm-to-school food programs and expanding technology opportunities.

At the same time, Moore said, “all the old favorites will come back,” such as legalizing personal use of marijuana, banning “no-knock” warrants, cash bail, banning asset forfeiture and other progressive issues.

Last week, the Senate’s 25 members agreed on their priorities this session. They include:

>> Increasing the inventory of affordable housing, especially for Native Hawaiians.

>> Diversifying the economy, increasing the minimum wage, investing in training programs for jobs that pay “an adequate income” and developing technology infrastructure to expand the number of people who can work from home.

>> Developing an effective distance learning program, addressing teacher shortages through programs such as dedicated affordable housing and supporting early childhood initiatives.

>> Supporting local food production and sustainability, establishing food hubs, mitigating the spread of invasive species, supporting a high-tech agricultural industry, and developing and promoting aquaculture.

>> Protecting and strengthening women’s reproductive rights, destigmatizing mental illness, developing procedures for involuntary treatments and addressing the shortage of health care workers and social workers.

STATE REP. Gene Ward, (R, Hawaii Kai-Kalama Valley), who will seek reelection after serving off-and-on for 24 years and is one of just five Republicans in the Legislature, said he plans to push for bills benefiting working families and to speed up the pace of getting Native Hawaiians on usable Hawaiian homelands.

“It’s the economy, stupid,” Ward said. “We have perpetuated the poverty of so many families in the state of Hawaii. The economy of Hawaii does not fit the needs of families. There will probably be something done with the minimum wage, but that offers false hope. Particularly with Hawaiians, I’m hopeful we can fulfill that promise.”

Ward is skeptical that an election year necessarily will produce a spate of popular results that will resonate with voters because incumbents have an advantage over challengers, especially with limits on face-to-face campaigning because of COVID-19.

“Hopefully it (election year) will help a lot,” Ward said. “But the playing field is still skewed.”

Party primaries are scheduled for Aug. 13, with the general election on Nov. 8.

State Sen. Stanley Chang (D, Diamond Head-Kahala-­Hawaii Kai) is chairman of the Senate Housing Committee and also seeking re-election. Chang plans to once again sponsor a slate of bills aimed at providing more affordable housing and support raising the minimum wage, among other family-­friendly issues.

He also has proposed requiring the Legislature to meet year round “in order to enable us to be more nimble” while also reducing the temptation to gut and replace last-minute legislation at the end of a session.

Chang is candid that reforms are needed, especially this year.

“Certain types of bills do tend to move in an election year that show our constituents that the Legislature is working for them,” Chang said. “As we head into an election year, everyone should be focused on the fact that voters want change. So we need to deliver that change.”

—

2022 session

>> 60-day legislative session scheduled from Wednesday through May 5, barring a special session.

>> State Capitol again closed to the public due to COVID-19 pandemic.

>> House and Senate hearings can be viewed on each chamber’s YouTube channel.

Visit capitol.hawaii.gov for more information.