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IN AND AROUND THE CAPITOL
Lawmakers debate
House, Senate try to work it out By Ben DiPietro
funding for Hawaiian
immersion program
Associated PressA bill establishing a Hawaiian language immersion program in the public schools is being held up in the House-Senate conference committee because of money.
The Senate conferees want a dedicated source of funding for the program, which they said would demonstrate the Department of Education is serious about its commitment to teaching in the Hawaiian language.
House members prefer to leave the funding amount to the discretion of Schools Superintendent Paul LeMahieu, saying he will have to find money for the language program and for new charter schools out of his existing budget.
Money for the program would come from the Department of Education's operating budget, so mandating a set spending amount could constrain the schools chief in how best to use his limited funds, said Rep. Bertha Kawakami, vice chairwoman of the House Finance Committee.
"We've got to be careful about the funding mechanism," said Kawakami (D, Hanapepe). "If we can't fund the immersion program to the fullest amount, and along comes charter schools, where are we going to get the money?"
Funding the program for the entire public school system would cost between $4 million and $5 million, Kawakami said.
The House version of the bill also makes the program discretionary instead of mandatory, which the Senate version does.
Sen. Colleen Hanabusa (D, Waianae), said it's time the department steps up and shows its support for the immersion program, and that means finding money to get it started.
"There's a definite need for the immersion schools now," Hanabusa said. "The immersion program is long overdue, the support is long overdue. We should be committing resources to that. But the bottom line comes down to: where is the money coming from?"
Also, the conferees agreed on a bill requiring the Department of Land and Natural Resources to establish a burial-site program.
The program would assist island burial councils in their work preserving historical sites such as Hawaiian heiau, or burial areas, and protecting bones and other artifacts.
The bill doesn't include a definition of a heiau, and removed penalties for damaging or destroying a heiau or other historical site.
Hanabusa said lawmakers decided to wait until people newly confirmed to the island burial councils can begin work and then have them work on a heiau definition and other issues before the start of the next session.
"This bill in its present form has been supported by many members of the burial councils," Hanabusa said. "What they are asking for now is that we specify this in law, and allow them in the interim to work out a definition of heiau, which is where we all want to go."
The bill heads to a vote in the Senate and, if approved, goes to the governor.
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House, Senate
Star-Bulletin staff
trying to work out
differencesWith the deadline for final approval of legislative measures fast approaching, a flurry of conference committee activity is under way this week with discussions on how to remedy disagreements between the House and Senate.
Bills that require no funding must be approved by Thursday, while the deadline for money bills is Friday. The last day of the session is Tuesday, May 2.
The state budget was one of the subjects tackled by House and Senate conferees, but negotiations are ongoing.
Conference committees also worked on new fireworks regulations, a prohibition on shark-finning and the construction of a new state prison.
Other happenings around the state Capitol this week included:
NONCOMMERCIAL PIERS: A bill that allows homeowners to purchase leases for state-owned submerged lands under their illegal piers was approved Monday by the House.
The House approved a Senate-amended version of the bill that allows the Department of Land and Natural Resources to lease submerged lands, or lands beneath tidal waters, for private noncommercial residential piers.
The bill would allow the leases to be negotiated without first putting the land for sale in a public auction.
It deletes the current requirement that leases for sunbathing and swimming piers on public lands be open to the public with signs indicating the public's right to use the pier.
HIGH APPOINTMENT: The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted to send to the Senate for confirmation the nomination of Simeon Acoba Jr. as an associate justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court.
The committee received over 100 pieces of testimony in favor of the nominee.
But city Prosecutor Peter Carlisle came out against confirmation, saying Acoba's decisions as a judge have been overly technical and lacked common sense.
The Senate will vote on the nomination next week.
UNITED: Thousands turned out for a Wednesday rally organized by several labor unions at the state Capitol to display a united front against civil service reform.
HAWAIIAN MEETING: Hawaii's congressional delegation met at the state Capitol with two dozen leaders in the Hawaiian community to discuss federal legislation that would clarify the relationship between Hawaiians and the federal government.
The discussion is the result of the so-called Rice decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that declared that the Hawaiians-only voting in Office of Hawaiian Affairs elections was unconstitutional.
UNCLAIMED CORPSES: Corpses that go unclaimed will be cremated or used for medical research under a bill agreed to Tuesday by House conferees.
The bill allows the state Department of Human Services to cremate a body if no relatives, loved ones or friends claim it within five working days and if the state does not know of anyone to notify about the death.
Current state law provides no remedy to dispose of bodies that go unclaimed.
Associated Press contributed to this report
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