Budget worksheets, essential documents for reading House and Senate versions of the state budget, are now open to the public. Budget papers
Legislative roundup By Richard Borreca
now open to public
Star-BulletinRep. Charles Djou (R, Kaneohe) two weeks ago had asked that he be able to take home the worksheets but said he was refused by the House Finance Committee.
He and Sen. Fred Hemmings (R, Kailua) asked that the Senate Ways and Means worksheets also be opened, but said he again was refused.
After publicly protesting, it appears that the documents will be made public.
Yesterday, Sen. Brian Taniguchi (D, Manoa), Ways and Means Committee chairman, and House Speaker Calvin Say (D, Palolo) said the budget worksheets would be open.
Taniguchi said he would have three copies available in his office for public scrutiny and would work to have the entire document posted on the Internet.
Say thought that it would be too expensive to post the document on the Internet, but said he would look at it in the legislative interim.
Meanwhile, Say promised that anyone could look at the documents in the House Finance Committee room and that they could copy portions of it, if a representative would sponsor the copying charge.
For instance, if the Republicans wanted to copy the entire budget worksheet binder, Say said, they could do so and then make copies available to the public at their own expense.
Djou called the action "progress toward open government."
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Legislature Bills & Hawaii Revised Statutes
While there are always controversial issues before the state Legislature -- such as whether there really is enough money in the state budget to fully fund pay raises for teachers -- routine or "housekeeping" bills are quietly being sent up to Gov. Ben Cayetano for consideration. New laws relax need
By Pat Omandam
of poison rules, extend
incentives for conservation
Star-BulletinFor example, Cayetano on March 29 signed into law his second and third bills of the 2001 session, the first of many awaiting his signature when the Legislature adjourns on May 3.
One of the new laws would extend to July 1, 2007, a 1997 habitat conservation provision that provides additional incentives to private landowners to conserve endangered species.
The other makes it optional, not mandatory, for the state Department of Health to adopt rules and regulations on the sale of poisons. State lawmakers say the law was enacted more than a century ago when laws to regulate poisons were nonexistent.
State lawmakers agree poisons are effectively regulated by the federal and state governments today, and elimination of this law would help Hawaii cut red tape.
In other news this and last week at the state Capitol:
Statehood revisited
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday will vote on a resolution that calls for the federal government and the United Nations to review the actions that led to statehood in 1959 and affirm that no choices were given for independence or free association, but only for Hawaii's integration within the United States.Lawmakers also want the United States and U.N. to consider how the Hawaiian self-determination movement affects Hawaiians and Hawaii residents under domestic and international law.
Walk the walk
Public education in Hawaii shut down Thursday after state teachers and university faculty hit the picket lines. Barring any weekend settlement, the concurrent strikes by the Hawaii State Teachers Association and the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly will enter their first full week on Monday.Gov. Ben Cayetano and the state Legislature are at odds over how much pay raise money is available for union contracts.
Ceded lands cost
After state Auditor Marion Higa said this week it would cost about $19 million to do a comprehensive inventory of Hawaii's public trust lands, state lawmakers attached a provision to OHA's general-fund budget requiring the state agency to pay $8.5 million or half of the cost. Trustees criticized the move at a board meeting this week.
Gambling study
Proponents and opponents of gambling packed a Senate meeting room this week supporting a study on legalized gambling in Hawaii. Lawmakers said there is no chance they will vote on a gambling bill this year.
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