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Winners & Losers

Calvin Say: The House speaker struck a positive note, supporting the University of Hawaii and being on track with Gov. Ben Cayetano's civil service reform.

June Jones: House and Senate leaders tried to get into the winning football coach's spotlight.

Dwayne Yoshina: The state elections chief picked up an ally, Senate President Norman Mizuguchi, in the fight to stave off budget cuts and resulting delays at the polls.

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Mainland prisons: Keeping local convicts in mainland prisons was losing favor last week, with Democrats and Republicans both saying they wanted prisoners locked down in Hawaii.

Public workers unions: Their clout appears to be waning as political leaders endorsed various plans to revamp state civil service.

Jeremy Harris: The mayor defended the use of private funds to have his State of the City speech shown on television. Gov. Cayetano's State of the State speech was to be broadcast today live on all four TV networks, without charge.

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This feature by Richard Borreca will run Mondays
throughout the legislative session.

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Economy tops isle
concerns in survey

To keep the Legislature focused on reviving Hawaii's economy, several pro-business organizations including the Hawaii Business Roundtable and the Pacific Resource Partnership are showing legislators a new poll.

According to the public opinion survey taken by OmniTrak Group of 700 local residents selected at random, the economy is the No. 1 issue for more than half of those responding.

When asked why, people said lack of jobs, a perception that little has been done to help the economy and concern that political in-fighting takes precedence over the needs of the people.

Republican House leader Rep. Barbara Marumoto said the poll showed that the GOP's call for government reform was echoed by the public.

Veteran public relations consultant Jim Loomis said the poll showed that people are concerned and have specific suggestions. "It shows that people are paying close attention; it is prompted by the economy."

The report is available on the Internet at http://www.omnitrakgroup.com

DISASTER BY DEFAULT?: Keep it clean, the environmental group Sierra Club is saying to the state Legislature.

The group is concerned that automatic permit approval, a law passed two years ago which allows permits to be approved if they are not speedily acted on by government, is "a disaster waiting to happen."

"Hawaii doesn't want planning by default. Developers and the government are realizing that this law is really a mess," says Jeff Mikulina, director of the Hawaii chapter of the Sierra Club.

He was particularly concerned that while the Legislature tries to improve the economy and create more jobs, it would do so at the expense of the environment.

The Sierra Club will also support legislation this year to ensure public access, increase spending on environmental programs and protect native species.

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