ONE of the unintended results of holding conferences and empaneling task forces is that someone will pay attention to you. One or two infrequent gatherings and you are probably safe, but if you spend six months directing attention at meeting after meeting, you are bound to draw attention. Public expects Legislature
to take actionAnd when folks learn you are there to fix a problem, there is a good chance that someone will expect you do something.
When the Legislature sat through conferences after conclave last year, stewing over the state's economy, it was normal for the public to expect the Legislature to do something.
So far, however, what the Legislature has managed to accomplish is to set the stage for the biggest political change in 20 years.
Things are bad now, but there is great potential for them to get worse. The economic indicators warn that as the Asian economy continues to turn inward, next year Hawaii will have even less tourist-derived money.
The response from Hawaii's governor and legislative leaders is to rely on the tourist economy to pay for tax cuts. The plan also includes raising general excise taxes. There's even a plan to tax charities, preschools and hospitals.
All those prelegislative conferences, however, have built up the public's expectation that the Legislature and the governor will move the economy forward. Not likely, judging from the legislative output.
This makes the state's best new growth industry running a campaign against an incumbent.
"If you can get them mad enough, they will vote your way," the Rev. Frank Chong, who publishes the authoritative Legislative Yellow Pages, said.
"Anybody with a reasonable idea, and even if it isn't reasonable, but just an alternative, has a good shot," he said.
One lobbyist and longtime Democratic Party worker said it is the Legislature's and governor's own fault for building up "impossible expectations."
There are a number of people looking to run this year, who in the past would have stayed home, the lobbyist, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
"People seem vulnerable this year," he said.
Another veteran lobbyist keyed in on the tax issue. "If they raise taxes, I sense a revolution," he predicted.
If all those suppositions prove true, this is a watershed year for legislative politics.
If the Legislature continues its present course, just being an incumbent may be a divisive wedge issue.
Already there are clusters of issues forming that anti-incumbents are likely to throw in the voters face this fall.
Incumbents can expect opponents to sharply question how they voted on privatizing government. The governor's economic task force is likely to trigger its own set of questions.
IF the task force recommendations are rejected, incumbents will have to say what they delivered instead. If the tax increase passes, they may need flak jackets before going out in public.
As John F. Kennedy observed, when written in Chinese the word "crisis" is made of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.
If Hawaii's Legislature reacts to the current crisis with the present status quo legislation, few of today's incumbents will be around to celebrate the next century.