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Legislative Even before a single law is passed, the state Legislature will be making an impact on wallets across town when it convenes Wednesday for the start of its 2001 session.
sessions mean
good business
From food and drink to office
supplies and hotels, the state
Legislature is a moneymaker
for HonoluluBy Richard Borreca
Star-BulletinFrom bars to books to hotels and tons of paper, the Legislature is a multimillion-dollar economic engine for Honolulu.
Operating on a total yearly budget of $12.3 million, the Legislature spends most of its money and hires most of its staff for the January to May session.
Even without a calendar, downtown Honolulu stores, restaurants and bars can all tell when the Legislature is in session.
"We know, we can tell right away because lunch business picks up," said Gary Dickman, general manager of Players, a sports bar on Beretania Street close to the state Capitol.
"Sometimes when they are in session, it is hard to get a table," he said.
Legislators or their clerks call in reservations, and the catering picks up as the lawmakers and staffs start working at night.
At lunch, salads are popular, Dickman said.
"They are not into heavy pupus, and there is very little alcohol served," said Dickman, who has been running Players for more than nine years. "They aren't party animals. They may come in around 5 p.m. for one drink."
Over at Art's Hideaway on Bishop Street, Art Marcos, who has owned the basement restaurant and bar for four years, said his legislative crowd shows at lunchtime.
"They love my chicken katsu and New York steaks," he said. "But just at lunch -- they don't come at night. Then it is bankers and lawyers," he said.
Che Pasta, an upscale Italian restaurant on Bishop Square, doesn't get the extra lunch business during the first legislative week, said owner Marc Cohen, because most legislators and staffers seem to have in-house food and parties.
"We are seeing less and less of the lobbyists taking them (legislators) over here. Now it is more large groups coming," he said.
"And we are seeing less entertaining. I don't think people want to be seen drinking, and there used to be some really famous bars downtown," Cohen added.
According to Brian Melzack, CEO of Bestsellers, a bookstore on Bishop Square, legislators and staffers are a literate bunch.
"When a book is read and catches on, it spreads through the Capitol like wildfire," Melzack said.
For instance, when the governor read "Banishing Bureaucracy: Five Strategies for Reinventing Government," everyone was asking for it, he said.
"And the lieutenant governor is an avid reader," Melzack said. "When she gets a book she likes, the whole staff reads it. She reads almost anything new about Hawaii or Asian studies."
Legislators and their staffs are also buying both the morning and afternoon papers, Melzack said. "They must sit down and review both papers every day," he speculated.
Brooke Wilson, a University of Hawaii college student who has worked in the House clerk's office for the past three sessions, said staffers don't contain their consuming to downtown.
"When we are working late, someone will go and get maybe 10-15 hamburgers from Kua Aina (Sandwich Shop)," she said.
When staff, lobbyists and legislators can't get out of the Capitol, they are lined up in the basement snack shop presided over by David Cameron. His shop has gross sales of between $40,000 and $60,000 during the legislative session, with soft drinks being the top seller.
"During the session, I guess it is three times the volume of the rest of the year," he said.
When the Legislature works, it consumes pallets of paper.
"I know we make an impact on the paper supply in town," said Patricia Mau-Shimizu, nine-year veteran House clerk.
Over in the Senate, Clerk Paul Kawaguchi said the 25 Senate offices and his office buy $136,000 in office supplies during the year, with $84,000 of it for the Legislative session.
About half of the House and Senate budgets go for salaries. Mau-Shimizu explained that each House member gets $4,500 per month for legislative salaries. They can hire as few or as many workers for that as they want. The House operation increases by 150 as the print shop, messengers and sergeant-at-arms staffs are increased.
"Previously, the National Conference of State Legislatures ranked Hawaii first in the percentage of staff hired for the session and last in the number of full-time staff members," she said.
Staff is also hired for the Democratic and Republican research offices, and the committees add staff for research and bill drafting during the session.
Many of the areas of patronage have been cut out, the two clerks said. Technology is one of the reasons: The printing equipment is much more complicated than it was 10 years ago, so skilled operators are needed.
Finally, the Legislature makes a bit of an impact on the tourist economy, as neighbor island legislators get $80 per day for food and lodging in town. But, as former House Speaker and Maui Democratic Rep. Joe Souki grouses, just try living in a hotel and buying three meals a day on $80.
"It is difficult, not nearly enough to cover our expenses. I bring my car over for the session, so Young Brothers gets some money, too," he said.