County poised for progress, Hanabusa says

The Maui News
Thursday, January 18, 2007

By EDWIN TANJI, City Editor

HONOLULU – Maui County is positioned well to get what it wants in capital improvements with three senators and veteran Rep. Bob Nakasone holding key positions in the 2007 Legislature, Senate President Colleen Hanabusa said Wednesday.

Offering her thoughts as the session officially got under way, the new Senate president said she is still "hearing jokes in both chambers about the Maui Mafia."

Key transportation issues involving highways and habors planning will funnel through the transportation committees of the two houses, where Rep. Joe Souki is chairing the House Transportation Committee and Sen. J. Kalani English is chairing the Senate Transportation and International Affairs Committee.

Sen. Roz Baker is chairwoman of the Ways and Means Committee, while Sen. Shan Tsutsui is vice chairman and English also remains on the 11-member money committee.

"Under our new rules, the vice chairman of ways and means will have under his purview the capital improvements projects," Hana-busa noted. "What it means really for Maui is that it will have control, with Representative Nakasone in the House. Everyone knows Representative Nakasone is the one who really handles the capital improvements budget for the House Finance Committee.

"It's becoming a joke about Maui that the island will sink under the weight of all of its projects."

Hanabusa said the Maui County delegation was able to position itself well in the new Legislature through organization and coordination among the members.

"It's a function of organization. But for me, it's also a fact that Senator English always has been someone I've relied on to maintain the smooth functioning of the committee," she said.

Hanabusa won the leadership of the Senate in a reshuffling that put Sen. Robert Bunda, president for the previous term, on the sidelines as an ex-officio, nonvoting member on all committees. The other key committee, Judiciary, is chaired by Windward Oahu Sen. Clayton Hee, a former Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee with ties to Molokai.

Kauai Sen. Gary Hooser also holds key positions as majority leader and as a member of Way and Means.

In dealing with complex issues of harbors planning and the Hawaii Superferry, Hanabusa noted that Hooser and Sen. Russell Kokubun – a Big Island senator and chairman of Water, Land, Agriculture and Hawaiian Affairs – both have held that an environmental impact statement should be prepared on the effects of the proposed interisland ferry.

"Senator Kalani English is the chairman of transportation, and the issue of the Superferry will come through his committee. I don't think it's over yet because Senator English will definitely have a say on what must be addressed by the department," she said.

"There are a whole lot of issues on harbors. I think one of the major concerns is that, if there is any place that we're vulnerable, it's in our ports and harbors.

"Another major issue that the Superferry debate brings to the table is the simple movement of cargo and people, and whether the harbors should be strictly for cargo like with Sand Island, and where should we be moving people.

"The question is whether those kinds of mixed uses are a cause for all kinds of problems because when the guys are moving a container, they've got to move them out quickly or they're losing money. Then if we are mixing movement of people from a ferry and cargo, there are concerns for safety and for liability of the state," she said.

In funding for schools and highways, Hanabusa said the Maui County delegation is well positioned to negotiate for funding as well as for planning even if a project, such as a Kihei high school, is not included in the governor's budget.

"Most definitely. You have to include the Nakasone factor," Hanabusa said. "On the surface, Maui sure is dominating."

That will also apply to one of the more heated issues in Baker's 5th District, with a contingent of South Maui residents campaigning at the opening session for approval of the proposed Malulani Health and Medical Center.

Hanabusa said she was not sure how the Senate would treat a proposal to grant an exemption to the State Health Planning and Development Agency law to allow the project that was turned down by SHPDA.

The Maui delegation will take a lead, she said, although there will be questions about the impact on state costs.

"The Senate will probably take the lead from the Maui senators since it will be a special exemption for a private hospital for the island of Maui," she said.

But there are issues raised, including the factor of federal subsidies that would be lost if a second Maui hospital is built.

"From a state perspective, as you know, Maui Memorial is the most, if not the only self-sufficient hospital within the HHSC system. We are dealing with a whole set of issues on providing medical care in rural areas and on the Neighbor Islands. I'm pretty sure that is one of the concerns of legislators because we have these hospitals and medical centers that are heavily subsidized by the state," Hanabusa said.

She said she was not familiar with the Malulani proposal other than that it was a private hospital that would be competing for patients and revenues with Maui Memorial Medical Center, which is managed by the Hawaii Health Systems Corp.

"I have not heard anybody saying that SHPDA needs to be revamped or retooled in any way . . . If you could have an exemption, the question is why have a comprehensive planning program if community pressures on its legislators could lead to exemptions.

"If we are to stick to a comprehensive program of planning for medical care, we have an obligation to take the politics out of it – or there needs to be an analysis that shows it doesn't work any more," she said.

On Oahu, where SHPDA regulates planning at private hospitals, she said she believes the system is working to reduce costs and losses, and reducing a need for the state to subsidize medical facilities.

"HHSC is one system and the subsidies to HHSC are there because the state pays for a lot of the collective bargaining costs associated with the state-owned facilities. It is to assure the organization can meet the bottom line," she said.

"But we have a lot of federally qualified medical centers and those kinds of facilities, such as the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, and the centers in Hana and on Molokai, raise different kinds of challenges.

"There is a question of whether the state needs to fund the facilities to have an emergency room that is open 24 hours, for instance."

She cited the questions being raised over the effort to keep the Kahuku Hospital open by adding it to the HHSC roster. But there is a medical clinic across the street from the hospital that had announced it would close at the end of 2006 but was kept operating while the state examined options for taking it over.

"For Kahuku, the representatives of the area would like Kahuku to become part of the HHSC system, but from the state perspective, we have to look at the cost because then the staff would become quasi-public employees," she said.

On whether the Senate might approve an exemption for a private Maui hospital, Hanabusa said, "it will depend on whether our colleagues tell us this is the way to go.

"Senator Baker was chairwoman of health in the past session. I believe her analysis would be critical."

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

Copyright © 2005 The Maui News.

Original article URL: http://www.mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=26858

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