Governor backs Gambling should be allowed on interisland cruise ships in Hawaii, as long as it only takes place outside the 3-mile limit, Gov. Cayetano said yesterday.
cruise ship gambling
Cayetano said he also would
Jones Act exemption supported too
support a single-license casino
on a neighbor islandAssociated Press
"It's good for their passengers and if they can make another $8 million, then it's more business coming to Hawaii," he said.
In an effort to maintain a monopoly for the now-defunct American Classic Voyages cruise ships in Hawaii, U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) won federal legislation to prohibit ships with gambling facilities to operate in Hawaiian waters. That forced the owners of the Norwegian Star, which arrived in the islands last weekend to begin interisland cruises, to take out its casino.
Cayetano, in a meeting with neighbor island newspaper editors, also reiterated his support for a single-license gambling casino in Hawaii, but only if the state's proceeds went for a specific purpose such as education or college scholarships.
Earlier this year, he proposed letting Hawaii's people decide the legalized-gambling issue through an amendment to the state Constitution.
At least three gambling groups are expressing interest in establishing a resort-casino in the isles, including Sun International, whose officials will be in town next week, Cayetano said.
Sun International, which operates resort hotels and casinos in the Bahamas and Atlantic City, N.J., proposed an $800 million resort-casino at Ko Olina on Oahu earlier this year.
The governor said a resort-casino in a more isolated location such as Kona or Kohala on the Big Island might be a better idea.
"The ones who have talked to me would all love to be here on Oahu where the people are, but I think for the local people, I think we need to make it a little more difficult to get to," Cayetano said.
State Senate Minority Leader Sam Slom (R, Hawaii Kai-Aina Haina) said he would favor allowing the individual counties to decide the gambling issue. "If the proponents had a specific plan for how to spend the money, such as tax decreases or education spending, "I'd be much more open to it ... but it's not a panacea," he said. "We don't buy the idea that just having gambling will help the economy."
Gov. Ben Cayetano has reversed course and said he now supports an exemption from the federal Jones Act to allow foreign-built cruise ships to operate interisland tours. Cayetano now backs
foreign interisland cruisesThe governor says the law ought
to exempt Hawaii, Alaska portsBy Bruce Dunford
Associated PressThe law forces the 2,200-passenger Norwegian Star, which arrived Saturday to begin interisland cruises, to make a swing 600 miles south to Fanning Island in Kiribati on each interisland circuit, making it an international voyage.
The governor, in a meeting yesterday with newspaper editors from Maui and the Big Island, said he will ask U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) to consider legislation that would exempt cruise ships operating in Hawaii and Alaska from the federal law that prohibits foreign-built vessels from plying trade between U.S. ports.
He said getting an exemption might be hard because of the national politics involved, although Inouye did get an exemption for the foreign-built MS Patriot to operate in Hawaii until its owner filed for bank-ruptcy in September.
Cayetano said he used to support the act.
"But the Jones Act as it applies to the cruise ships doesn't work anymore for the American shipbuilding industry because the American shipbuilding industry can't compete with the rest of the world," he said. "They do it better other places and do it cheaper."
The governor said he changed his position when American Classic Voyages Co. shut down its two Hawaii cruise ships, the MS Patriot and SS Independence, in an October bankruptcy and had its contract canceled for what were to be the first two American-made cruise ships since the 1950s.
"Sen. Inouye is the key person in all these kind of things," he said. "But the political problems that amending the Jones Act brings about doesn't only include this little shipbuilding industry. It includes the airlines and everybody else.
"It's really interesting that American big business that talks a good game when it comes to free enterprise wants a little protection in this area," Cayetano said.
"If you try to open it (Jones Act) up too big, you just generate opposition," he said. "So perhaps if Alaska is willing to go along with this, then perhaps a special exemption for Alaska and Hawaii" could be given as an incremental step in relaxing the act.
State Senate Minority Leader Sam Slom (R, Hawaii Kai-Aina Haina) said he was "heartened" at Cayetano's push for a Jones Act exemption, which he said is an issue that has been ignored for too long in Hawaii.
Slom agreed that the bankruptcy of American Classic Voyages has changed the circumstances significantly.