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Capitol View
FOR better or worse, some things are sacred and the Legislature should not go there. Rollback of tax cut
could be bloodyIn Texas, hunting is holy and you better not take away a hunter's gun, whether it is a Saturday night special or a semi-automatic assault weapon. No one gets elected in Texas on a gun-control platform.
In the West, places like Wyoming or Idaho, the issue is land. You would think that in places with 600 acres for every resident, that no one would quibble about land, but real estate, especially federal control of land, just drives Westerners nuts.
Here in Hawaii we are developing an attitude towards politicians with designs on your wallet.
There's no aloha for "tax reform" efforts, if they result in dollars flying from you to the city or state.
In its simplest form, Republicans like Sen. Sam Slom compare the state's budget to a family's. "We would like a new car and a vacation in Europe, but we can't afford it all, so we just don't buy it. It is called budgeting and living within your means," Slom says.
No way can a family just spend more and expect the money to appear. Nor should government spend more by raising taxes.
But the Legislature is readying a fine shopping list this year.
Gov. Ben Cayetano wants computers for the schools, a new medical school, more money for a new state computer system and that hardy legislative perennial that blooms at the end of every governor's term, the state aquarium.
Lawmakers aren't shy about what they want -- lots more money for the schools and for the public employees.
To get that money, the Senate wants to roll back a tax cut that has become the hallmark of Cayetano's administration.
Hawaii plans to cut income taxes between $50 million and $70 million this year and an equal amount next year, according to Lowell Kalapa, head of the independent Hawaii Tax Foundation. That money would go a long way toward paying the state's public workers more, including the teachers and university professors.
The Ways and Means chairman, Sen. Brian Taniguchi, who is getting the worried look of a man who has just been handed the dinner check as everyone else leaves the table, says if he is going to pay the bill, he needs some cash.
So he is asking for help. Don't raise taxes, just delay the tax cut, he says. Good idea.
But, Kalapa points out, the bill is retroactive and would take away a tax cut just granted. If you really want to make people mad, take away the money you just gave them.
IN addition, the tax cut take-back would come just five months before the 2002 primary elections and you are starting to see the makings not of a Legislature, but of a political suicide cult.
To compound matters, the state House is exploring a flirtation with dissent. The speaker and vice speaker issued dueling press releases. First Rep. Sylvia Luke said the tax cut rollback was DOA, dead on arrival, in the House. Then Speaker Calvin Say had to caution moderation, explaining that the House would look at anything the Senate had done.
What is missing is not more speeches or threats, but a plan that has the chance of winning majority support.
In the House, such a plan without support from the 19-member GOP minority will come back to haunt Democrats in next year's elections.
If the Republicans don't buy the Legislature's financial plan and if the Democrats do the math by raising taxes or not continuing the rollback, Democrats and deer on the opening day of hunting season will have a lot in common.
Richard Borreca reports on Hawaii's politics every Wednesday.
He can be reached by e-mail at rborreca@starbulletin.com