Maui lawmakers differ in views of session’s results 

The Maui News
May 3, 2002

By MARK ADAMS
Staff Writer

HONOLULU — Maui state Sen. J. Kalani English was proud of what he and his colleagues accomplished during this year’s legislative session.

“The Senate tackled head-on all of the controversial issues, and we dealt with them,” he said Thursday.

Sen. Avery Chumbley was a little less enthusiastic.

“I think we have unfinished business,” he said. “There may have been some things we reached agreement on — consumer-related things — but I’m disappointed in some of the bigger budget cuts in social services and education. They’re going to be painful.”

State Rep. Chris Halford, a member of the growing Republican minority contingent in the House of Representatives, was beyond disappointed in the Legislature’s performance.

“Terrible,” he said when asked for his assessment. “This session failed in a lot of ways,” naming the lack of education reform and a record $7.4 billion total spending plan as two of them.

As the Legislature wrapped up its work on time late Thursday afternoon, Maui lawmakers did find many bright spots.

Late additions to the budget include $500,000 to continue the work of the dengue warriors battling disease and invasive species through the Emergency Environmental Work Force.

English lobbied hard for the money last week, telling his colleagues the EEWF is a health and safety issue.

The senator also noted that $100,000 was put in the budget at the last minute to pay for extended hours of the ambulance serving the Kula area, which all three lawmakers applauded.

Other Maui news coming out of the Legislature Thursday included the final confirmation of Wailuku attorney Joel August as 2nd Circuit Court judge for Maui, replacing Artemio Baxa, who retired at the end of last year.

“I think Joel will be a good addition to the bench on Maui,” Chumbley said.

English agreed.

“We’re very pleased to welcome him aboard as the newest judge for Maui,” the senator said.

Maui did well in the area of capital improvements, but at least one of those appropriations will need some help, Chumbley said.

The Legislature put $900,000 in the supplemental budget to add long-term care beds at Hale Makua. The expansion will free up beds now taken up by patients who must stay at congested Maui Memorial Medical Center because there is no room at the nursing home.

Gov. Ben Cayetano has refused to release the $900,000 allocated in the current budget, saying he does not think the state should be subsidizing a private business.

Chumbley said he intends to meet with the governor and ask him to spend the money. Recent attention paid to the hospital’s plight and the bid to break up the state hospital system and turn MMMC and other county hospitals into independent regions may have changed Cayetano’s mind, he said.

“I intend to meet with him personally and plead if I have to,” he said, adding that there is a direct correlation between the private company’s expansion and the public’s health interests by freeing up space at the hospital.

English noted that the new appropriation is good for 18 months and Hale Makua may have to wait for a new governor.

Both senators were impressed with the quality of the debate on the death with dignity bill Thursday, with Chumbley supporting it and English opposed.

“It was the most comprehensive, engaging and best debate I have ever participated in,” Chumbley said, and the emotions and thoughts expressed by lawmakers were deeply held. “It created a nice bond — I think it will make for better people, regardless of what the outcome was.”

English said issues involving life and death will come to legislators more often in coming years, as science and technology advance.

“It died a dignified death,” he said of the bill. “Even though my intellectual mind could support (the bill), my heart could not. When you’re born, you accept the fact of death — you can’t control the when, where and how, but you know you will pass.”

English saw two clear winners during the session — the environment and the consumer.

The bottle bill’s approval, introduced by Maui/Kauai Rep. Hermina Morita, is the crown jewel of environmental legislation, he said. An environmental council that includes all state department heads was also created, and the work force bill was funded partially.

English said he will seek funding from large corporations and foundations for the EEWF, which still needs several million more dollars to operate for the entire coming fiscal year.

Consumers won with bills providing rate regulation for health insurance and one aimed at providing price controls on gasoline, he said, although the start date of the latter measure was kicked back to July 2004.

Chumbley said the bill should not be considered a cosmetic touch in an election year.

“This set down public policy, and from this point forward we’ll be fine-tuning it,” he said. “We will allow dealers to make a fair profit, and that amount is not set in stone.”

But Halford said while he firmly supports lower gas prices, the bill approved by the Legislature is a failure.

“This useless bill is for show,” he said. “It is an electioneering bill that promises lower gas prices but does not deliver lower gas prices, except maybe after the year 2004. If this bill were thoughtful and sincere, it would implement price reduction immediately.”

Halford also criticized the state budget, which he set at a record $7.4 billion when all accounts are included, including a $3.6 billion operating budget.

It was crafted by raiding nonrenewable accounts, which Halford called “the sofa cushions under which we found the money to balance the budget.”

The lawmaker said the state is committing itself to a level of spending that is not sustainable.

Halford also criticized his colleagues for not being willing to let voters decide if local school boards should be created through a Constitutional amendment.

“The Legislature failed to offer the people of Hawaii meaningful, constructive school reform,” he said. “Decade after decade, we promise education second to none but deliver a system that performs near the bottom in the nation — we have failed again.”

English said he thought the capital improvement budget for Maui came together nicely and was particularly proud of bills that allocate $3 million for a 7,000-square-foot expansion of the Makawao library and planning money for a six-classroom building in Hana.

“It’s a growing community, and we’re looking at putting in a new building,” he said of Hana.

Chumbley had one other positive reaction to the legislative session as he and his colleagues wound down at the Capitol.

“I got through it alive,” he said with a laugh after an intense couple of weeks.

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