Editorials

Workers comp gets the runaround

SEN. Brian Kanno ought to consider a career as a magician. He's already an expert at making himself disappear. Kanno is chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Labor and Employment Committee. When a delegation from the Haku Alliance, comprised of employers and other advocates of workers compensation reform, tried to meet with him last Thursday, the senator went into his vanishing act. Kanno's aides told the visitors that he wasn't available, but he was seen sneaking into his office. Obviously he didn't want to face these people because he had no intention of moving the legislation they were concerned about.

Kanno had not scheduled hearings on billsfor workers compensation reform that had been passed previously by the House. The next day was the deadline for Kanno's committee to hear the bills. The deadline passed with no action. However, the Senate rereferred the bills, giving them two more weeks of life. One of the proposals would allow employers to attempt to reduce medical costs by contracting with health-care providers. Another, a Cayetano administration measure, would establish a mutual insurance fund for employers placed in the assigned-risk pool.

Deron Akiona, executive director of the Haku Alliance, commented, "We don't think one legislator should hold up the whole process." That's right, but that's how the system works - or fails to work. Workers compensation costs in Hawaii are among the highest in the nation and a factor in the current stagnation of the state economy. If the Legislature is going to do anything about improving the economy, workers compensation is one of the obvious areas for action.

But Kanno, who appears to be in thrall to the unions, prefers to let reform measures die. And Senate President Norman Mizuguchi claims to be taking a hands-off position, refusing to interfere with the decisions of committee chairmen. This is not leadership. This is avoiding the hard issues.

Kanno should be told to hold hearings on these bills. If he still refuses he should be replaced.

Other editorials, in brief:

State pension reform

LEGISLATIVE leaders, who may have sensed public outrage, have backed off a proposal that was easily identified as a bogus reform of the legislators' pension system. House and Senate leaders are now in apparent agreement that true reform is needed to bring an end to complaints about the system.

Barbers Point Harbor

CONSTRUCTION of Barbers Point Harbor had its critics, but the Leeward Oahu facility has become a busy place - so much so, in fact, that expansion is being planned. The state is planning to add berths in a project entailing the dredging of 1.4 million cubic yards at a cost of $16 million. With Honolulu Harbor lacking room for expansion, Barbers Point Harbor is proving to be a valuable facility, particularly to serve Leeward industrial operations.





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