Gambling industry
proposes new ployThe issue: The Legislature may
consider a non-binding vote
on legalized gambling.FACING probable defeat again in their most recent push in the Legislature, gambling interests now hope for a non-binding referendum -- essentially an election-day opinion poll -- to bolster their chances of getting legalized gambling approved in the future. This is just another ploy in a campaign to establish a gambling presence in Hawaii.
The gambling industry has nothing to lose from such a roll of the dice. Gov. Cayetano, apparently having given up on his wish for a constitutional amendment to legalize gambling, has thrown his support to the strategy, which is little more than a shell game. It should be roundly rejected, as advocated recently by Sen. Inouye.
Past Star-Bulletin opinion polls have indicated that a carefully tailored question could gain the favor of voters who may not consider the long-term consequences. The industry no doubt will ask for a strictly limited gambling proposal with unstated plans for ambitious expansion. Among the findings of those polls:
>> When asked whether they supported legalizing gambling, 58 percent of respondents to a 1996 poll were opposed and only 32 percent were in favor. However, 63 percent of respondents said they thought the question should be put to voters -- a sentiment that gambling interests understandably are exploiting.
>> In a 1998 poll, 54 percent said they would approve a lottery with all revenues going to education; 34 percent were opposed.
>> A year ago, a poll by the Star-Bulletin and KITV-4 showed that 40 percent of respondents would not support legalizing gambling under any circumstance, while 46 percent would support it under some circumstances and only 13 percent were in favor of any kind of legalized gambling.
The gambling industry obviously is weighing the odds based on such polls. A sharply limited scenario -- say, a single casino, as Cayetano has supported -- is most likely to gain approval in a ballot-box poll. Even though it would have no legal standing, legislators would be pressed to enact such a bill or to put a constitutional amendment on the 2004 ballot. That would open the door to legislation allowing more casinos or other gambling venues.
The more modest that a proposal seems, the easier the gambling industry will be able to avoid questions about the harm that gambling causes to individuals, families, businesses and society in general. Despite being hugely outspent by gambling interests, opponents of gambling in many states have defeated referenda aimed at expanding gambling activities by emphasizing those concerns.
Curtain opens on
legislative seasonThe issue: Leaders of the Legislature
opened the 2002 session with a flurry of ideas.Some of the proposals by the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Legislature at Wednesday's opening session seemed to have merit. Others looked like political posturing.
As might have been expected, the $213 million Hurricane Relief Fund became an immediate point of contention. Gov. Cayetano has said the funds should help cover a budget deficit. Senate President Robert Bunda asserted that "the bulk of the fund should remain in reserve." Minority Leader Sam Slom argued that "this money should be returned to the people who were forced to pay into it."
First choice should be the Slom Option, second choice the Bunda Alternative, and third choice the Cayetano Preference.
Bunda proposed turning Aloha Stadium over to the University of Hawaii. UH President Evan Dobelle salivated over the prospect. It's a good idea. The senator's suggestion that funds be invested in agriculture, however, was questionable since agriculture is all but dead in this state.
Slom was flip in labeling the controversial traffic camera project the Taliban scamera but was right in calling for its repeal. He opposed the merger of Hawaiian and Aloha airlines as a monopoly that would erode choice on interisland travel, which deserves careful thought, and called for revising maritime law so that foreign owned cruise ships could call at ports in Hawaii, which should be supported. So should more choices for families in health care insurance plans.
The speaker of the House, Calvin Say, proposed establishing a Waikiki Authority to devise a master plan "to polish our crown jewel of tourism." While few would argue that the concrete jungle that is Waikiki should be renovated, Say's proposition looked like a bureaucratic ploy to generate talk and little action. Skip it. His suggestion for setting up a Hydrogen Energy Authority to push development of hydrogen as a clean source of energy is worth scrutiny, as Hawaii sits in an endless source of hydrogen -- the Pacific Ocean.
The House minority leader, Galen Fox, proposed breaking up "Hawaii's bloated, single school district and create seven independent, local school districts -- one for each neighbor island and four for Oahu." That sounded like a winner, but cracking the vested interests will take intellectual and political dynamite. Eliminating taxes on food, medical care and rent seemed like another winning idea with similar opposition.
To Bunda should go a prize for candor. For too many years, he said, "we have approved spending without asking the tough questions surrounding those expenditures." If ever there was a session to reverse that habit, this is it.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
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Lucy Young-Oda, assistant managing editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.comRichard Halloran, editorial page director, 529-4790; rhalloran@starbulletin.com
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