IT'S appropriate that the 1998 Legislature is wrapping up the same week as "Seinfeld." Both were big shows about nothing. Legislature is a big
show about nothingHawaii's economy is in its worst shape since statehood. Leading companies are shutting their doors, filing for bankruptcy or announcing layoffs. Decent jobs are so scarce that Hawaii people are fleeing to the mainland.
The voting public expected decisive action by the Legislature to stimulate the economy, especially after Gov. Ben Cayetano, Senate President Norman Mizuguchi and House Speaker Joe Souki put on the big show with their Economic Revitalization Task Force.
Now, four days past their scheduled adjournment, legislators have done the Seinfeld thing. Nothing. Oh, they'll cobble some watered-down package of tax and spending cuts before they adjourn. They'll put a pretty spin on it.
But let's face it, anything hastily conceived in a couple of days after three months of petty squabbling will lack cohesive vision and will stimulate only the public's cynicism about government's ability to fix anything.
Two little news items this week made strong impressions.
One was a story about small business owners celebrating the death of the excise-tax increase proposed by the governor's task force to pay for big cuts in personal and business income taxes. One owner was gloating happily about the excise-tax victory. Then his mood turned. Gee, he said, this means there probably won't be any real economic stimulation package, which we need to stay in business.
It makes you wonder who's more clueless -- the legislators or the special-interest lobbyists who lead them around like trained chimps.
The other story was about Cayetano's speech to the Hawaii Teamsters in which he said many of our economic problems can be traced to the money troubles in Asia. He predicted that leaders of those countries would soon turn their economies around because it's in their interest to do so.
Really? By that logic, Hawaii's leaders would have found it in their interest to work together to devise a well-reasoned plan to address our own economic problems. How would the governor explain their failure to do what he's so confident the Asians will do?
The fiasco over privatization of government services was a plain sign of how dysfunctional our Legislature has become. The issue was clear: If government is to achieve the greater efficiency taxpayers are demanding, administrators and lawmakers must have the right to privatize services when it make sense.
Taxpayers expected the Legislature to clarify an ambiguous law that last year led the state Supreme Court to give public employee unions virtual veto power over privatization contracts.
Mayors of the four counties -- two Democrats, two Republicans, two of them potential opponents in the governor's race -- put aside their differences for the common good.
IT was a different story in the Legislature. The two Democrat-controlled houses of the Legislature couldn't agree. The two Democratic factions in the Senate couldn't agree. The two Democratic half-chairpeople of the Senate's labor committee couldn't agree.
The only positive sign is that legislators like Ed Case in the House and Suzanne Chun Oakland in the Senate finally showed the gumption to defy leadership and try to force action on key issues like Bishop Estate trustee salaries and privatization.
Maybe next year the "leaders" who have failed to deliver will be sent to the sidelines and talented young legislators like Case and Chun Oakland will be running the show.
David Shapiro is managing editor of the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached by e-mail at editor@starbulletin.com.
Volcanic Ash runs every Saturday in the Star-Bulletin.
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