Veto grounds air ambulance

Arakawa, Maui lawmakers shocked by Lingle's decision to kill funding

Maui News
Sunday, June 22, 2003

By EDWIN TANJI
City Editor

WAILUKU — Maui legislators and Mayor Alan Arakawa were stunned Saturday by the decision of Gov. Linda Lingle to veto a bill providing $1 million for an air ambulance for the four-island county. 

Arakawa, who had listed the air ambulance as his top priority for the last legislative session, said he had not known of the veto and had not expected it. 

His staff had lobbied heavily for state support for an air ambulance, with the county putting up $612,000 in its 2004 budget in support of the program. 

"I have no knowledge of it," Arakawa said Saturday. He said he had not been aware of any objections to a Maui-based air ambulance and did not know what he would do with the county's funds for the program. 

"I'll talk to her about it. I won't know until I find out exactly what's happening," he said. "It's a good project. There are a lot of things that I don't find out about until I hear from you guys." 

Legislators who had supported the program and shepherded it through the Senate and House said they had heard of no objections to the bill. 

"She vetoed that one?" West Maui Rep. Brian Blundell said. "She wasn't supposed to veto that one.

"That is way too bad. We were home free on that one. I'm disappointed," Blundell said.

"This is absurd. This is so absurd," Sen. Roz Baker said. "This really came out of left field because I knew some of the bills she was going to veto, but I had talked with some of her senior staff, and I talked with her legislative liaison as late as Tuesday and there was no indication." 

In a brief synopsis of her veto message, Lingle said the bill requires the state to "include emergency aeromedical helicopter services statewide, but provides funding only for Maui. 

"This would result in excessive financial liability for the state," the message said. 

Russell Pang, media relations liaison for Lingle, said Saturday night that she would not be available to discuss her decision. 

Sen. J. Kalani English, whose rural 6th District of East Maui, Lanai and Molokai is the most in need of the emergency air service, said there had been a meeting of emergency response personnel Wednesday at Maui Memorial Medical Center to begin planning the setup of the air ambulance program. 

The county funding had been expected to cover the costs of preparing the on-ground facilities that would support the air ambulance, with the Department of Health to contract for the service when the state funding kicked in a year later. 

"We got all of the other representatives and senators from all around the state to agree that this was something that was needed," English said. "It appears that . . . it raises a question, has she lost her compassion for the people of Maui.

"It's a sad veto, and I'm not sure that she realizes that it hurts people."

The air ambulance was seen as particularly important to residents of the outlying islands as well in the isolated areas of East Maui from Keanae to Kaupo. But it was also strongly supported as an essential emergency service for West Maui, the bustling resort center that can be cut off from Central Maui and the hospital by blockages on the two-lane Honoapiilani Highway. 

Maui County had a private helicopter air ambulance service in 1994, when California-based Mercy Air started up a service based at the Kahului Airport, with a landing pad set up next to Maui Memorial Medical Center. 

In its first month of operations, the Mercy Air helicopter was credited with saving the life of an 80-year-old Molokai man who was critically injured after a truck ran into him. But the high cost of operations was not matched by the revenues from occasional calls and Mercy Air shut down Maui operations a year later. 

The state- and county-funded air ambulance was seen as promising a needed service for critically ill or injured patients in remote areas. 

"This is a real travesty. This was a service the entire community wanted," Baker said. "It was going to benefit the entire county and the county had come up with half of the funds for it, and we were going to leverage this for federal funds that are available for this sort of need." 

Baker, who is the Senate Health Committee chairwoman, had toured the islands of Maui County with federal health officials, including stopovers at Kalaupapa and in Hana, to impress upon them the isolation of the remote communities. 

"This is something the council supported, the mayor supported, Democrats and Republicans. It was a win-win for the county. It was going to help guys in Hana, Lanai, Molokai. It wasn't just a one-district kind of deal," Baker said. 

She noted that Oahu receives air ambulance services through the military, while the state helps subsidize the Big Island's emergency helicopter service. At the same time, Kauai legislators had indicated that they did not see the same need that Maui County had and supported the bill to provide the service to Maui. 

Blundell, a Republican, could only say he was surprised by the action of the Republican governor. 

"I didn't expect that one to be vetoed at all. It was one I supported with the county. The county came in and helped us write it so it would be palatable," he said. "We thought we had a good bill. I had no idea that it was even on her list for a veto."

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