Largely overlooked in the criticism was the overhaul of the probate code, a significant reform that will benefit many more people than, for example, sanctioning or banning same-sex marriage.
Senate President Norman Mizuguchi and House Speaker Joe Souki, each of whom squeaked through in the last election, are well aware of public sentiment and can be expected to prod their colleagues to find viable compromises.
This time around the public can expect the Legislature, exhausted from the previous wrangling over this issue, to propose a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage to counter the state Supreme Court's interpretation of the state Constitution as it now stands. This would put the issue on the ballot for decision by the voters - who would in all probability approve it. To provide recognition for homosexual couples without the legal status of marriage, the Legislature should also enact a "domestic partnership" measure providing such couples with certain legal and economic rights.
The auto insurance reform battle will be resumed with a fresh effort to abolish the no-fault system, which is aimed at reducing or eliminating litigation in personal injury cases. This misguided effort, which would do nothing to reduce auto insurance premiums, would benefit trial lawyers, not consumers. It should be resisted in favor of a strengthened no-fault system, which would save money now wasted on lawsuits and thereby offer a way to reduce premiums.
The abolition of "high three" is a no-brainer. Nothing could do more to raise the esteem of the Legislature in the eyes of the voters.
Not only does the present system permit legislators to line their pension pockets by working a mere three years in a full-time state or city job. It also provides governors with a means of getting key legislators to vote their way - by dangling the prospect of a job and a fat pension to follow.
Governor Cayetano's proposed $2.1 billion construction budget for the biennium deserves support as a way of priming the pump of the barely growing state economy. These are not make-work projects. They are projects that would have been built anyway, but over a longer time period. Accelerating the construction schedule makes sense with the building industry in the doldrums.
The law providing 20 percent of revenue from ceded lands to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs needs clarification, as the governor has pointed out, in order to prevent the payments to OHA from reaching unaffordable levels.
There are dozens of other proposals deserving of attention, but these seem to us to be the most pressing. There are, however, two measures dating from the last session that should be repealed: the watering down of the sunshine law for state boards and commissions, permitting members to confer in private, and the discrimination against out-of-state contractors in awarding state government contracts, which raises the cost of public works projects.
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor