Isle GOP effort Last-gasp efforts by Republicans failed to draw enough Democrats to beat a noon deadline today for the state Legislature to convene a special session to override bill vetoes.
fails to prompt
special session
Sen. Hanabusa tries to get court
to declare vetoed bills as lawBy Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.com
Nevertheless, a Democratic state senator went to court to continue her contention that 13 of the 53 bills vetoed by Gov. Ben Cayetano should actually become law.
Colleen Hanabusa, Senate vice president, filed a writ of mandamus with the Hawaii Supreme Court yesterday to compel the governor and the House and Senate clerks to recognize that these bills have passed into law today because the governor did not give legislators the 10-day notice that he intended to veto them.
Hanabusa said she believes only nine days of notice were given to lawmakers, excluding the day the governor notified the Legislature of the vetoes. As a result, these bills were never vetoed. She contends these bills become law at 5 p.m. today if the Legislature does not convene a special session.
"The real issue is that the governor missed his deadline," Hanabusa (D, Waianae) said. "And because he missed his deadline, he does not have a right to then veto these bills. And these bills should be law."
Cayetano said last week he believes he has met the 10-day notice requirement called for in the state Constitution and believes all his vetoes will stand. He said Hanabusa was wrong.
A writ of mandamus is used by the court to compel an official to carry out a law. It is rarely used, only when all other judicial remedies have failed or are inadequate.
The baker's dozen list of vetoed bills include a $75 million tax credit for a Ko Olina/aquarium resort project, a major campaign finance reform measure, rent relief for airport concessionaires and a 4 percent tax credit for commercial construction.
Cayetano informed legislators June 24 he would veto these bills. Hanabusa believes the 10-day notice should have been given on June 21.
Hanabusa, an attorney, said the Hawaii justices could respond to whether they will hear her petition as early as Friday. Ideally, she would like the high court to review briefs and hear oral arguments on the issue.
House Majority Leader Marcus Oshiro (D, Wahiawa) said yesterday the Democratic majority believes it is better to take up a few of the vetoed bills during the next regular session.
For example, he said, legislators could still address the governor's objections to the campaign spending reform measure with enough time to have it apply to the 2004 election cycle.
Republicans, in their last public push for a special session, said yesterday the veto override of the campaign reform bill was needed to ensure it covered the 2002 election cycle. They complained if Democrats really supported campaign finance reform as they did during the session, they would support an override of the veto.
"All politicians like to talk about reform," said Charles Djou (R, Kaneohe), House minority floor leader.
"It is unfortunate that it seems to me the leadership of the Legislature wants to do nothing more than that, just talk about it," he said.
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