Senate measure would
slash QUEST fundsBut an error made the cut too big --
By Helen Altonn
$25 million -- and will be fixed,
Chun Oakland says
Star-BulletinThousands of low-income families would lose health care assistance under a $23 million cut in QUEST funds in the Senate version of the budget.
But that's because of a mistake that will be fixed in the House-Senate conference on the state budget, Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland said today.
The state QUEST program provides health care for 130,000 residents.
A loss of $23 million in state funds would actually would cost the program $46 million because of federal matching funds, said Charles Duarte, MED-QUEST Division administrator in the state Department of Human Services.
"It would impact the continuation of QUEST," he said. Even if it was a bargaining ploy and "we end up someplace in the middle," he said, "it still means hard times for families we serve."
Ways and Means Co-Chairwomen Carol Fukunaga and Rosalyn Baker couldn't be reached for comment today.
But Chun Oakland, Senate Human Resources Committee chairwoman, said the Ways and Means Committee didn't intend to eliminate anyone from assistance and the matter will be corrected.
The QUEST budget request for the next year in state funds was $166 million.
About 57 percent of recipients are children, Duarte said.
Chun Oakland said the amount was cut because a committee analyst said the department had over-estimated the QUEST population next year.
"But it didn't equate to $23 million. That's too severe a cut," she said.
In fact, she said, the Ways and Means chairwomen had tried to restore health and human services abolished by the House.
"The whole philosophy xxx is to preserve direct services. So, there should not be any alarm on the part of the public," she said.
Rep. Dennis Arakaki, House Human Services Committee chairman, said he wasn't aware of the reasons for the QUEST cut, which would "really be devastating" to the state's health safety net.
He said he hoped the Senate had an explanation for the program reduction because House members want to support the Senate's restored health programs.
"But it's not worth it if you're just robbing Peter to pay Paul," Arakaki said.
Should governor
By Craig Gima
appoint the BOE?
Star-BulletinVoters in the general election this fall would be asked if there should be an appointed Board of Education, under a bill passed by the House yesterday.
Republicans offered an alternative proposal to create elected county school boards.
"Elected boards at lower levels are the most accountable to the people," said Rep. Mark Moses (R, Makakilo) in support of the GOP floor amendment.
But House Education Chairman David Stegmaier (D, Hawaii Kai) said county school boards would create "an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy."
Stegmaier said it costs more than $419,000 a year to run the state Board of Education, and the money to fund separate boards would be better spent in the classroom.
He said it is in the nature of county school boards to take authority away from individual schools.
Rep. Galen Fox (R, Waikiki) said the state school board is not reaching the grass-roots level, and argued it should be up to the people to decide whether they want to spend the money for the county boards.
"This is a chance to really do it right, offer the people a real choice for education: local school boards," he said.
The Republican amendment failed.
The bill to ask voters if the governor should appoint Board of Education members, subject to House approval, passed with four Democrats joining 12 Republicans in opposition.
Bill to buy Waiahole Ditch
By Pat Omandam
keeps flowing along
Star-BulletinThe state's proposal to buy the Waiahole Ditch has made it upstream, with the plan going before a House-Senate panel that must decide whether it should fish or cut bait.
The state Senate by a 22-3 vote yesterday approved a House bill that spends $10.2 million in special revenue bonds to buy, fix and operate the ditch -- but not before the Senate minority took its parting shots at the administration proposal.
Minority floor leader Sam Slom (R, Hawaii Kai) said while it is important the state secure water resources for continued use in the future, it hasn't taken care of the ones it already has. Slom said three of the four ditches the state now controls are in disrepair, but nothing has been done.
"So now we consider a bill that really is the son-of-a-ditch," Slom said.
The minority caucus also has argued this session the state should get owners Amfac/JMB Hawaii to donate or lease the ditch to the state.
Condemnation is another option, said minority leader Whitney Anderson (R, Kailua).
"I would rather American Factors give us the ditch for a dollar and love," Anderson said. "And they owe us a lot of love, let me tell you."
Also voting against the purchase was Sen. Lehua Fernandes Salling (D, South Kauai-Niihau).
Ways and Means Co-Chairwoman Carol Fukunaga (D, Ala Moana) said a number of issues have been raised as a result of the bill.
The final decision, she said, will be made by a conference committee in the next three weeks.
House and Senate positions
on key billsGovernment operations
CONTRACT OFFICE (SB3076, SD1, HD1):
House: General agreement with Senate.
Senate: Creates contract office to provide centralized and coordinated purchase of services for the Health and Human Services departments.
House: Transfers the aquaculture program from the Department of Land and Natural Resources to Agriculture Department.
Senate: Adds elimination of attorney general's special assistant and administrative services manager; school health aide floater positions; Health Department's interdepartmental cluster for services to children program. Saves the Office of Environmental Quality Control that Gov. Cayetano wants to ax.
House: Allows state boards to hold secret meetings when private donations are discussed.
Senate: Concurs.
House: Creates a temporary Maritime Authority Commission to come up with the plan for a permanent commission that would be the sole authority for Hawaii's harbors.
Senate: General agreement.
House: Allows any government official to contract with a private entity to provide services when there is "a reasonable basis" to believe that the services can be provided at a lower cost and in equal or better quality than by government.
Senate: Provides for the establishment of a managed competition process; temporarily allows privatization by exempting government contracts from civil service laws; prohibits terminations and provides protection to public employees who may be transferred because of privatization. Also provides for transforming, in a five-year period, the state's line-item budget to a performance-based budgeting system.
House: Repeals requirement that state Ethics Commission maintain a list of everyone who examines public officials' financial disclosure statements.
Senate: Concurs.
House: Requires all agencies and departments to establish by rule a maximum period of time that's no more than 90 days for the review and approval of all state or business-related permits, approvals and licenses.
Senate: Sets no specific time frame.
House: Establishes a government efficiency task force to eliminate state and county duplication of services.
Senate: Guts bill. Requires governor and the mayors to eliminate duplicative road maintenance and parks services. Abolishes duplicative positions -- even those that are filled.
Bishop Estate
House: Creates a task force to study compensation of trustees for Bishop Estate and other charitable trusts.
Senate: Limits trustee compensation to an amount that is deemed "reasonable." Committee report notes that the Internal Revenue Service has established regulations to determine the reasonableness of trustee compensation.
Business
House: Requires the tobacco tax on wholesalers to be paid with tax stamps affixed to packs.
Senate: Adds criminal and civil penalties for violations.
House: Grants immunity to employers from civil liability for disclosing "good faith" job performance assessments of current or former workers to prospective employers.
Senate: Grants "qualified immunity" to employers who provide fair and truthful information about a current or former worker's job performance to a prospective employer.
House: Not addressed.
Senate: Increases the bid preference from 7 percent to 15 percent for local general contractors; means an isle contractor can get a state contract even if his bid is 15 percent higher than a mainland contractor's. Also gives ombudsman new duty as mediator of disputes involving small businesses.
House: Prohibits workers comp for any disciplinary or personnel action taken in good faith by the employer.
Senate: Prohibits workers comp for stress caused by an employer's just-cause disciplinary action.
Economic development
House: Not addressed.
Senate: Seeks to encourage technological growth by creating a technology training, or job creation tax credit; allowing each resident taxpayer to claim a lifetime learning, or hope, tax credit; pushing improved student access to technology.
Education
House: Asks voters in November to decide if the statewide, elected school board should be appointed instead by the governor.
Senate: Not addressed.
House: Not addressed.
Senate: Establishes a temporary commission on educational accountability; authorizes the Department of Education to hire retired teachers an a part-time basis for one school year; authorizes the Board of Education to charge a deposit fee on all school books.
Elections
House: Includes political parties and their national affiliates under contribution limits set for political action committees and individuals, meaning the amount parties can give is reduced from $50,000 to $6,000.
Senate: Instead of being effective for this campaign season, pushes back to Jan. 1, 1999, the start of new rules limiting how much a candidate can receive in individual campaign contributions and how much money a party could give to a candidate.
House: Restricts campaign contributions of $50,000 to a two-year period instead of any election year. Provides that any expenditure made to a governor or a lieutenant governor candidate supporting a running mate shall not be considered a campaign contribution.
Senate: In general agreement.
House: Establishes a pilot program for "clean elections" for state representatives and state senators; sets limits on qualifying contributions.
Senate: Establishes a pilot program for governor and lieutenant governor elections in 2002; requires participating candidates to comply with expenditure limits.
House: Lets voters decide during the November election if a constitutional convention should be held.
Senate: In general agreement.
Fee increases
House: Generally concurs.
Senate: Assesses a fee on inmates who request and receive nonemergency medical, dental or mental health treatment.
House: Increases towing fees.
Senate: Backs increases but at different rates.
Health
House: Agrees -- but convenes a panel of Hawaiian healers that would define, certify and regulate traditional Hawaiian medical practices.
Senate: Exempts from the prohibition of practicing medicine without a license traditional Hawaiian healers who perform traditional Hawaiian healing practices.
Human services
House: Stresses that child safety is the priority for Child Protective Services; allows doctors to share medical information involving children in CPS system.
Senate: Concurs. Also allows foster parents to seek medical care for their wards.
Judiciary
House: Grants judges unspecified pay hikes.
Senate: Held in Ways and Means.
Land and water
House: Permits counties to transfer development rights between two tracts of land.
Senate: General agreement.
House: General agreement.
Senate: Renames it as the state Planning Commission; gives the state panel sole authority in conservation and agricultural districts; gives the counties sole authority in urban and rural districts and sole authority over zoning matters.
House: Authorizes special purpose revenue bonds of $10.2 million to purchase, improve and operate the Waiahole water system to assure adequate water to Leeward Oahu farmers.
Senate: Effective date July 1, 2020, to force House-Senate negotiations.
Public safety
House: Authorizes the city to establish procedure to conduct criminal history checks of its employees who work in close proximity to children. Exempts from checks workers employed prior to June 1, 1998.
Senate: Expands bill to all counties.
House: General agreement.
Senate: Allows victims of sexual assault to have their accused assailants tested for the virus that causes AIDS.
House: Permits a private firm to build a state prison on public or private land with a lease-sale option to the state.
Senate: Amends bill by creating a planning commission to represent residents of Kau, where a prison may be built. Also prohibits the construction of a Kau prison unless six of commission's nine voting members agree.
House: Increases penalties for prostitution in Waikiki; requires mandatory minimum 30 days imprisonment; if convicted, the subject would be prohibited from being in Waikiki from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Senate: Guts House draft. Creates a new offense of street solicitation of prostitution; provides civil action for damages for being coerced into prostitution.
Transportation
House: Requires anyone charged with habitual driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol to also be subject to driver's license revocation so that they're not driving while awaiting prosecution.
Senate: General agreement.
House: Authorizes Transportation Department to implement an intra-island water ferry system to transport commuters from Leeward Oahu to downtown Honolulu.
Senate: Broadens scope by deleting references to intra-island, Leeward Oahu and downtown Honolulu.
University of Hawaii
House: Grants UH more flexibility in running the university system.
Senate: General agreement.
Reported by Mike Yuen, Star-Bulletin
A calendar of tomorrow's hearings -- to be held at the state Capitol, 415 S. Beretania St., unless noted: LEGISLATURE UPDATE
House
Senate
