Senators look to session's priorities

The Maui News
Tuesday, January 16, 2007

By EDWIN TANJI, City Editor

WAILUKU – There will be funding for the Lahaina bypass highway, for new classroom buildings and new schools in West Maui and South Maui, for electrical upgrades for schools to install air conditioning and to start planning for expanding the Kahului Harbor.

There also is support for Gov. Linda Lingle's proposal for innovative programs to promote science and technology education in the public schools, although Maui County's three state senators said much of it is a redesign of existing programs.

But there may be little support for Lingle's proposals to revamp the State Health Planning and Development laws to allow the Malulani Health & Medical Center to move forward – unless the state Department of Health also is looking at statewide health planning issues to develop a comprehensive plan for upgrading services to all communities.

Going into Wednesday's opening of the 2007 legislative session, Maui senators are in key positions to win funding for projects in their districts, with all three – Sens. Shan Tsutsui, Roz Baker and J. Kalani English – in agreement on the priority for funding, the next phases of the Lahaina bypass.

Baker, whose South Maui-West Maui district is the main beneficiary of the bypass funding, is also chairwoman of the Ways and Means Committee, through which all funding proposals must go.

But with Tsutsui as Ways and Means vice chairman and English also assigned to the 11-member committee, the Maui delegation is in a prime position to set priorities on money bills.

That's despite the editorial position of The Maui News, English added. He referred to an editorial in The Maui News that downplayed the importance of having three Maui County senators leading the Ways and Means Committee.

"I am frustrated that The Maui News in its editorials questions our ability to follow through with legislation and then you ask us this question of what can we accomplish," he said.

"If you would ask people who really know, the general rule is when you have people in good positions, you usually get good results. Your editorial page people seem to doubt that, but many of the responsible people in the community seem to feel this is a good situation for Maui County."

The state Department of Transportation had been undergoing particularly heavy scrutiny during the presession hearings held by Ways and Means last week, during which questions were raised not only over highways planning but over planning for the state's primary commercial harbors.

"We want to see a master plan for the harbors in the state, to see how the state is going to redevelop the harbors, what their plans for creating more space, especially at Kahului Harbor, and how they are going to address the fundamental conflicts in movement of cargo and movement of people," English said.

"We have an idea that maybe we need to experiment, and take the three most congested harbors, Kahului Harbor being one of them, and take them out of the Harbors Division and giving them to another authority and have that outside authority plan and redevelop the whole thing, and then maybe return them to the Harbors Division for management."

He noted that he has similar concerns over the state Transportation Department's inability to appreciate the needs of Neighbor Island communities when it comes to highways planning, citing the decades-long delays in beginning work on the Lahaina bypass and other key highway corridors.

"I'm going to reintroduce the bill that I have introduced in every session, to move the Highways Division out of the state department and to the counties."

The bill would also transfer the funding from the state fuel tax and related fees that go to the state's highways fund with a phase-in plan for transferring the authority and funding for highways to the counties, he said.

While the bill to transfer highways to the counties has failed in the House in previous years, English said he believed Maui County is well positioned in the 2007 Legislature since he also is chairman of the Senate Transportation and International Affairs Committee, while veteran Maui Rep. Joe Souki is chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

Baker and Tsutsui both also listed Lahaina bypass funding as a priority for the Maui delegation.

"Some of Maui's most important projects are well positioned for funding that's going to move them forward," Baker said. "One of those is the bypass. It's not completely designed but it's going to be, and the governor in her budget request spoke to some $46 million.

"I certainly expect that it will be kept in the Senate version of the budget. There are a number of Maui County projects that are in that position. Fortunately, Senators Tsutsui and English and I work well together, and we will try to take care of the critical projects in each of our districts."

"Obviously infrastructure improvements are really important to us," Tsutsui said. "We want to continue to focus on the Lahaina bypass with the DOT . . . we really want them to focus on the Neighbor Island needs.

"We hope to get more cooperation from the department with its new interim director. We hope things can run a little smoother. We have Joe Souki and Kalani English heading the transportation committees. With Roz and I, and with Bob Nakasone in the key positions in the money committees, we expect we can show the department what the priorities will be."

Tsutsui, who took a lead in questioning the feasibility of the Hawaii Superferry plans at Kahului Harbor last year, said he also expects to have the transportation director respond to questions about upgrades to the harbor and improvements to the traffic situation surrounding the harbor.

"We are still looking for some solutions on Kahului Harbor, how it will work with the cruise ships and Superferry. We are putting a lot of focus there as far as what money will be needed to get us to where we want to be," he said.

He said he appreciated that the Transportation Department "is finally looking at the west breakwater, using that side of the harbor and turning it into a place where ships can dock." But he said the state administration must address all of the issues, including the shared use by canoe clubs, surfers and the recreational boaters who use the boat ramp on the west breakwater.

"We will need an environmental impact statement and maybe some kind of extension of the breakwater to accommodate the need for more facilities," he said. "From our preliminary discussions with the DOT, we are clear we don't want to interfere with the small boats."

The budget proposal released by Lingle two weeks ago includes $200,000 for for a Kahului "West Harbor Development Plan." Whether that will be sufficient, if an EIS is required, will be one of the subjects investigated in the budget deliberations.

But there is consensus among the senators on the need for funding for transportation systems and schools. There is less certainty on the disputed Malulani hospital proposal, for which Lingle has promised to seek an exemption from state requirements for a certificate of need.

English, who represents East Maui, Molokai and Lanai, said he questioned the concept of Malulani if it means downgrading the public hospitals serving Maui County.

"My district needs upgrades in medical care. Within the 6th District, the Lanai Community Hospital is in desperate need of better facilities to provide a higher level of medical care," he said. "We need better medical care in Hana and on Molokai.

"What I don't want to see happen is we create a situation where you have the quote – county hospital – unquote, where we have all the people who can't afford medical care and then have a private, for-profit hospital where the wealthy can go and they turn away patients who can't afford to be there."

He said he would object to exempting one private facility from the rules that apply to all other medical centers.

"It's a dangerous trend to give a one-time exemption to anything. If that's the case, I have a number of things in my district for which I want the state to provide a one-time exemption," he said.

"It's a very dangerous slippery slope when you allow a one-time exemption when you have a system in place that's intended to assure the public safety, health and welfare. If you are going to bypass it, why have it at all?"

Tsutsui, who is also majority caucus leader in the Senate, said he did not have a good sense of the feelings of the rest of the Senate on proposals to modify the State Health Planning and Development Agency. But he indicated he would favor a priority for a hospital in West Maui.

"For myself, I obviously support health care for the entire county. As far as having a second hospital, I believe at some point we will need a second hospital, but I think we will need to do the proper planning to move in that direction.

"If you look at South Maui and West Maui, obviously both regions have an interest in having a hospital in their neighborhoods, but personally I think West Maui may warrant a hospital first. We know how that highway gets shut down, and we need to assure the community that it will have health services it needs."

Baker said it will be a hard sell in the Legislature "for anybody that's going to be 80 percent a for-profit corporation," referring to the partnership involving Triad Hospitals, a Texas-based hospital management company.

Lingle, who has advocated approval of Malulani because it involves private financing, could do better if she would get the various parties together to cooperatively plan a way to provide the services, Baker said.

"It was the governor's representative, Linda Smith, who told the crowd in Kihei that if this project, Malulani, is perceived as a rich, haole hospital, it's not going anywhere," she said. "I didn't raise the issue and it was the governor's appointed administrator for SHPDA who said we didn't think this project met the standards for a certificate of need.

"If the person appointed by the governor doesn't agree with her, why would the legislators want to be involved?"

Baker said she supports the vision offered by Malulani's key backer, Dr. Ron Kwon, as involving "the holistic kind of care that we need to have happen."

"From one standpoint, it's good that people are focusing on health care if it means we can come up with additional resources and maybe have a collaboration that provides the higher level of care that we want to have."

Edwin Tanji can be reached at editor@mauinews.com.

OPENING DAY

2007 Hawaii state Legislature

Wednesday

Ceremonies will begin at 9:45 a.m. in the House and 10 a.m. in the Senate, all at the Capitol in Honolulu.

There will be speeches by leaders in the House and the Senate, along with entertainment. Following the ceremonies, the public will be able to meet with lawmakers. The events will be open to the public.

The legislative session will last through May 3.

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PRIORITIES

Maui County's three senators included the following projects as their priorities.

Those that are also in the governor's proposed budget show the amount being requested and

the fiscal year the money would be appropriated:

Lahaina bypass $4 million fy08 42 million fy09

Kahului Airport parking $1 million fy09

Kaunakakai Elementary School electrical upgrades

Kaunakakai Elementry classroom $782,000 fy08 $9.9 million fy09

Lanai High School science classroom $11 million fy08

Wailuku Elementary School II $43 million fy09

Paia Elementary School cafeteria replacement $5 million fy08

Hana Bay boat ramp

Kihei high school

Kahului Harbor planning

Kahului Harbor west breakwater expansion $200,000 fy08

Other major CIP requests in the governor's budget:

Maalaea Harbor $6 million fy08

Upcountry Maui watershed $3 million fy08 $3 million fy09

King Kamehameha III Elementary School sinkhole $1 million

Lahaina Elementary School III $5.24 million fy08

Kahului Airport access road $22.3 million fy08

Kahului Airport terminal improvements $9 million fy08

Kahului Airport drainage and other projects $3.2 million fy08

Kahului Harbor barge terminal $1 million fy08

Kahului Harbor navigational improvements $700,000 fy08

Waiehu Beach Road/Iao Stream bridge $5.2 million fy09

Puunene Avenue widening, Wakea-Kuihelani $600,000 fy08/09

Kalaupapa harbor improvements $4 million fy08

Molokai airport improvements $6.9 million fy08

Lanai Airport improvements $3.4 million fy08

Kamehameha V Highway/Kawela Bridge (Molokai) $3.5 million fy08

STATE SENATORS

SHAN S. TSUTSUI

Party: Democrat

District: 4th (Kahakuloa-Wailuku-Waikapu-Kahului-Lower Paia)

Office: State Capitol, Room 206, 415 S. Beretania St.,

Honolulu 96813

Phone: 586-7344

Fax: 586-7348

E-mail: sentsutsui@capitol.hawaii.gov

Committee and leadership posts: Vice-chairman, Intergovern mental and Military Affairs Committee; Vice-chair man, Ways and Means Committee; member, Tourism and Government Operations Committee; Transportation and International Affairs Committee.

ROSALYN "ROZ" BAKER

Party: Democrat

District: 5th (West Maui-South Maui)

Office: State Capitol, Room 210, 415 S. Beretania St.,

Honolulu 96813

Phone: 586-6070

Fax: 586-6071

E-mail: senbaker@capitol.hawaii.gov

Committee and leadership posts: Chairwoman, Ways and Means Committee; member, Health Committee.

J. KALANI ENGLISH

Party: Democrat

District: 6th (Upcountry-East Maui-Lanai-Molokai-

Kahoolawe)

Office: State Capitol, Room 205, 415 S. Beretania St.,

Honolulu 96813

Phone: 587-7225

Fax: 587-7230

E-mail: senenglish@capitol.hawaii.gov

Committee and leadership posts: Chairman, Transportation and International Affairs Committee; member,

Economic Development and Taxation Committee; Ways and Means Committee.

To call or fax to the above numbers toll-free: From Maui, dial 984-2400, then dial the last five digits of the number followed by the pound (#) sign. From Molokai or Lanai, call (800) 468-4644, then dial in the five digits of the number followed by the pound sign.

Copyright © 2005 The Maui News.

Original article URL: http://www.mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=26803

Return to Sen. English Home Page - KalaniEnglish.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home Bills and Resolutions About Senator English Committees Community Profiles Newsletter Archive News Archive Capitol Web Site Media Photos

Connect with Senator English

OUR DISTRICT