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Cayetano’s big
reforms flounder
in Legislature

The ambitious program
stalls in a body he says is
stuck on compromise

By Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin

Wounded and glum, Gov. Ben Cayetano goes into the final days of the 2000 Legislature hoping to save most of his big government initiatives for next year.

In January, Cayetano rallied the lawmakers to take action. Reforming Hawaii's civil service laws would trigger far-reaching changes to state government. Making schools and teachers accountable would boost education. Uniting the state's high tech centers would encourage new investment and economic growth.

Today, those ambitious plans appear stalled in a Legislature that Cayetano says is more interested in compromise and consensus than movement and reform.

He quotes Israeli politician Abba Eban: "Consensus is what many people say in chorus but do not believe as individuals."

As public and private union members were expected to rally at the Capitol today, Cayetano in an earlier interview threw out the question he would like the state workers to answer.

"If I were addressing the demonstration, I would ask them to take a look at others -- those in the private sector -- go talk to workers at Hawaiian Airlines, Liberty House or Bank of Hawaii" -- three major employers forced to lay off or cut back workers in the past three years.

"We haven't asked state workers to make those kind of sacrifices, the only thing we ask is to change rules for new employees, and even that is a battle," he said.

Former House Speaker Joe Souki, however, cautioned that while Cayetano's negotiating stance is to "lash out and threaten, in the end he sits down and is willing to compromise.

"The governor is a long-term politician and he understands it is better to get something," Souki said.

The grim years of plummeting state revenues, however, have caused Cayetano, to reconsider his financial strategy.

Quietly, Cayetano described how painful it was during his first four years to cut welfare benefits, and to halt programs and assistance for the poor and disadvantaged at the same time that public workers were getting pay raises.

During his re-election campaign, his pledge to pay delayed public worker pay raises was a key point in unions endorsing his re-election.

"I tell you what is not going to happen with the rest of my term," Cayetano said. "I was in a position to have to cut government, the people who were hit hardest were on welfare ... at the same time we were giving pay raises because of the arbitrated settlements.

"I'm not going to cut those guys anymore," he said.

"Twenty-six years I have been in this business, I have 2 years left and then I will have a new life, but in the meantime I am going to do all I can."

For this legislative session, Cayetano is still hoping to get an agreement from the Legislature to privatize a new state prison. He called the operation of the state's prisons his biggest frustration.

"I hate to admit this because we are the manager, but it is one where we have had so many of the employees arrested or indicted, we have had so many grievances filed against us; the overtime, which was one of my No. 1 priorities, has actually increased."

Given all those problems, Cayetano does not want to approve another state-run prison, until the situation is under control. So he wants a privately operated facility.

The unions' campaign against civil service reform has been effective, Cayetano noted.

"They have gotten employees to believe this will be the end of collective bargaining, which of course, it is not," Cayetano said.

Legislators are caught between the pressures of union leaders on one side and the governor on the other.

Souki, a veteran Democrat from Maui, said the House, which in the past has been close to the governor, is becoming more pro-labor.

While Cayetano sees consensus, Souki sees a shift to supporting the unions. "I suspect after the election, the House will be the labor chamber," Souki said.

After that election, there is another in 2002 in which all House and Senate seats will be up for re-election, and that will make Cayetano's task even tougher.

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