By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Gov. Ben Cayetano lashed out at Democrats yesterday
who he said were responsible for "disappointing"
results from this year's Legislature.
‘Politics of blame’
By Craig Gima
theme renewed
Star-Bulletin
Senate President Norman Mizuguchi used Gov. Ben Cayetano's own campaign words to respond to the governor's continued attacks on Senate Democrats.
Cayetano yesterday suggested that voters should get rid of members of his own party who resist making changes and are responsible for what he believes were "disappointing" results from this year's Legislature.
"The biggest problem we have in the Senate are Democrats and these are Democrats who don't have a feel that there is a need to possess a sense of urgency for change, who are very difficult to adapt to change," Cayetano said.
"I don't want to go back to the politics of blame," Mizuguchi said in response.
"The politics of blame" was a theme Cayetano used against Republican Linda Lingle. During the campaign for governor, Cayetano said Lingle blamed others for things that have gone wrong and took credit for everything positive.
"Does he have a master plan (to fix the economy) that we can all buy into? Isn't this the governor's responsibility?" Mizuguchi asked.
Mizuguchi also said the governor needs to work with the Legislature and find common ground with the Senate before next year's session.
In his annual post-session news conference yesterday, Cayetano used a baseball metaphor and suggested voters should elect someone who will "try to hit some home runs and win the game."
It was a reference to Mizuguchi's remarks on the last day of the Legislature Tuesday that lawmakers had hit singles with the tax and other bills that passed.
"Success is going to come in very small steps when you talk about the economy," Mizuguchi said yesterday. "When you talk about education, yes I was trying to go for the home run with my radical reform proposal."
He said he had hoped Cayetano would veto a flawed bill to give tax credits for hotel renovations so lawmakers could fix the measure in a special veto session in July.
"It's in his court right now," Mizuguchi said, suggesting that fixing the tax credit bill would help the economy.
But Cayetano said the Legislature can fix the bill in January when the Legislature comes back into session.
Cayetano also said he believes money from other accounts can be shifted so that there will not be a need for a special session over the partial closing of the Hawaii State Hospital. Lawmakers passed a bill that allows the hospital to transfer some patients into community facilities, but did not pass an appropriation to pay for it.
He said he is likely to sign other tax bills to help the economy -- including a measure that will eliminate the "pyramiding" of the general excise tax -- because it will reduce the amount of money government collects.
"It seems to me there's a real imbalance now in the collective-bargaining system and maybe the only way you can balance it is to deny revenue to the government so that we are forced to make change," Cayetano said.
The governor pointed to his proposals for New Century Schools and school performance which he said are now "saddled with so much bureaucracy and red tape that I'm not sure they are worth saving."
Cayetano also said lawmakers failed to provide money for a public or private prison and said while he continues to develop plans for a new prison, he also is looking at changing the laws to "see whether we are putting too many people in jail on a mandatory or automatic basis."
Asked whether the Legislature did anything good, Cayetano said he would have to think about it for a while.
"They still have time. They still have one more session. They can come up with some good things next session," he said.
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