Lingle might
veto 50 measuresThe governor says a tighter budget
and an unyielding Legislature
have forced her hand
Gov. Linda Lingle may veto as many as 50 legislative bills tonight because of a cash-strapped economy.
"There would be substantially less vetoes if we were not facing a $230 million revenue shortfall over the next two years," Lingle said yesterday.
The most bills vetoed by a Hawaii governor in a year was 83 after former Gov. Ben Cayetano's first legislative session in 1995.
Previously, Lingle had said she did not like legislative bills that would provide for a mandatory long-term insurance plan, expand the use and access of emergency contraceptives, allow public workers to settle contracts through arbitration instead of strikes and give tax breaks for hotels undergoing remodeling.
Changes in the budget forecast and the Legislature's unwillingness to compromise are forcing the extra vetoes, Lingle said.
"It is not what I prefer to do. I prefer to work out the differences during the session.
"I had some issues during the session that I wanted them to work on, and they didn't want to discuss it, such as the changes to Act 221," Lingle said.
Lingle had lobbied hard to have the Legislature tighten tax breaks for high-tech businesses in Hawaii, saying they were costing the state money and not providing new jobs.
Lawmakers, however, said the bill had only been in existence for three years and needed more time before being amended.
The Legislature also passed many bills that were technically flawed or had constitutional problems, Lingle said. Those measure would also be vetoed.
"Early on, I didn't think it would be that many, but as the session progressed, it became clear to me that the kind of bills the Legislature adopts, even if they know there is something wrong with them, they just want to let the community know they supported a particular idea," Lingle said.
The economy, however, remains Lingle's primary concern, and that worry limits the programs the state can support.
"I would caution anyone who has line items in the budget (private providers of state services) not to expect them to be funded completely," Lingle warned.
"We can't just keep spending money we don't have," she said.
The budget shortfall, Lingle said, now stands at $230 million because the Legislature failed to fund an emergency request of $14 million for state hospitals in the current budget and did not include any money in next year's budget for them.
"It is not realistic to not include the money for the hospitals for the second year of the budget. We are not going to shut down the state hospitals," she said.
Legislature Directory
Legislature Bills & Hawaii Revised Statutes Testimony by email: testimony@capitol.hawaii.gov
Include in the email the committee name; bill number;
date, time and place of the hearing; and number of copies
(as listed on the hearing notice.) For more information,
see http://www.hawaii.gov/lrb/par
or call 587-0478.
