Drug treatment among
new state laws
Thousands of public employees get pay raises, hundreds of businesses face lower state fees and addicts stand a better chance of kicking a crystal methamphetamine habit under new state laws going into effect today.
New laws that
What some of the new state laws would do:
take effect today>> Let optometrists prescribe and use certain drugs.
>> Let state courts add a "convenience fee" when debit or credit cards are used to make payments.
>> Reduce the taxes on ethanol, methanol, biodiesel and alternatives intended to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
>> Increase fines for repeatedly allowing a car alarm to go off for more than five minutes.
>> Allow judges to revoke the driver's license of anyone caught speeding at more than 90 mph.
>> Set up a $20 million student scholarship and assistance fund at the University of Hawaii.
Most of the new laws relate to money because today launches the new fiscal year, such as the state's $3.9 billion supplemental operating budget that Republican Gov. Linda Lingle has already begun restricting.
A priority item for the Democratic-controlled Legislature is legislation taking effect to tackle "ice" addictions, including sending first-time nonviolent drug offenders to drug treatment instead of jail. The legislation resulted from an override of a veto by Lingle, who said it lacked sufficient law enforcement tools.
The measures tap health insurance for drug treatment and push public-private coordination on drug prevention and education. The laws provide $14.7 million toward the effort.
One of the Lingle administration's key initiatives taking effect lowers a variety of state business fees, many by half.
The governor's prime example of the state being fair in assessing businesses for the state's cost of regulating them reduces the cost of getting a state "certificate of good standing" to $5 from $25. Lingle wanted it eliminated, arguing that a business following all the rules should not have to pay for the state document that says it is.
Individuals also get a break, with the state's filing fee for changing a name dropping to $50 from $100.
Some 20,000 state white-collar workers get the first part of an 8 percent pay raise package won through binding arbitration under a measure vetoed by Lingle but restored by the Legislature in an override.
Technically, bills with an effective start of today, but not yet signed by Lingle, automatically take effect July 13, with the application retroactive to today.
