THE 1997 Legislature has over 3,000 bills placed before it, of which only 300 may become law. Some states limit bill introductions, but not Hawaii. All bills are accepted, including a lot with generic titles that can be used in April, late in the session, to revive proposals earlier killed. Government over-
regulation is stiflingEvery bill takes watching even though most contain only chaff. Serious stuff might be added later.
Our two-house structure encourages this since once-rejected ideas may need revival at the last minute to work out Senate-House conference agreements.
This is a messy backroom procedure our one-house Honolulu City Council avoids. Like the results or not, City Hall deliberations are pretty open and straightforward.
We know who is responsible and bills don't have to be jammed up for last-minute bargaining. I hope our coming Constitutional Convention will pay heed to this.
The above, however, is only a preface to getting into my topic for today: At all levels of government let's strive to reduce the mountains of regulation that stifle efficient action. Just because a library book contract went sour, don't pass another law.
After a 1994 earthquake toppled Los Angeles freeways, it looked as though the journey through government regulations might stretch out rebuilding to four years. Gov. Pete Wilson used emergency powers to suspend the rules and used federal aid to provide financial incentives. The Santa Monica freeway was rebuilt in 66 days to a higher standard than the old one.
I have this on the authority of an article by Philip K. Howard, an attorney who wrote the book "The Death of Common Sense". He believes that America instead of being a nation of laws has become a nation of lawsuits.
His views were carried in the September quarterly issue of Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale (Mich.) College, which has the distinction of saving its freedom by refusing all federal aid.
Good intentions are behind most of the laws and regulations we enact. But they are mountainous. No small-business owner can ever read them. They divert time and dollars to paperwork and inflexible compliance requirements instead of focusing on results - as California did after the 1994 earthquake.
Howard urges that we make less use of regulations to ensure that things are exactly right and rely more on clear placement of responsibility and financial incentives as in the profit system. Howard cites a brick plant in Reading, Pa., that improved worker safety dramatically and lowered workers' compensation costs by giving prizes and bonuses for low accident records.
An OSHA inspection report on the plant had focused on railings that were only 39 and 40 inches high instead of the required 42. No matter that these had never been involved in a safety incident. The financial incentives were what really got both the employer and employees thinking safety instead of thinking paperwork compliance and wasted spending.
HOWARD also relates the unhappy saga in New York City of the Mission of Charity, an order led by Mother Theresa. It was seeking a shelter for homeless, bought an abandoned building from the city for $1, raised $500,000 for reconstruction, went through an 18-month approval process and started work.
Only then did building code inspectors tell the nuns that elevators are required in every new or renovated multi-story building - a $100,000 add-on. The homeless certainly would have been happy to trudge up stairs, but inspectors were unrelenting. Legal room to exercise simple good judgment was lacking. The project was abandoned.
There's no single answer on how to return to a world with less red tape. But we clearly need to move that way. It would be nice for our legislators to keep it in mind.