Lingle refines new
legislative proposalsDemocratic lawmakers question
her positions on educational reform
and building prisons
Republican Gov. Linda Lingle is refining the major items she'll ask the Democratic-controlled Legislature to consider three months from now, in a politically sensitive election year.
Lingle has her administration preparing proposals involving prisons, mass transit, tax credits, land classifications, collective bargaining, crime, long-term care and prescription drugs. That process has included creating task forces and holding a continuing series of "talk story" meetings in communities throughout the state.
Her top priority -- major reform to decentralize the state's public school system -- has already found a cool reception from House Speaker Calvin Say, who questioned the need for reform, provoking dismay from both Lingle and Republican lawmakers.
"It's awfully difficult within 60 working days to understand what the comprehensive package may look like," Say (D, St. Louis Heights-Wilhelmina Rise) said of the education proposal.
Because Lingle didn't include all the "stakeholders" on her citizens committee developing the education reform plan, the Legislature will have to seek information statewide from all parties, Say said.
"Why is Gov. Lingle top-down and not bottom-up in formulating her policy?" said Say, who added Lingle was moving "too quick" for someone who had been in office less than a year.
Senate President Robert Bunda said the House and Senate's majority Democrats are working to draft their own legislative election-year proposals that may conflict with those of the governor.
"She's going to talk about some of the proposals she's going to want to see done in the Legislature and the Legislature has its own agenda and we'd like to effectuate some of those, so it's not like we don't have an agenda," said Bunda (D, Kaena-Wahiawa-Pupukea).
He said legislative leaders would like to "talk story" with Lingle and her cabinet to see if they can reach common ground on some of the issues.
While Democratic leaders say they are ready to tackle an apparent epidemic of drug abuse involving crystal methamphetamine, or "ice," they question if there's money for such things as new prisons or a transit system to ease traffic snarls between downtown and West Oahu.
They also question Lingle's motives for seeking an overhaul of the state's classification of agriculture lands, changes to high technology and ethanol tax credits and the state's public employee collective bargaining law.
Bunda has questioned if Lingle's push to re-examine agriculture land designations is a move to open more lands for development.
"That's not good," he said.
Say questioned the governor's position on building new prisons after abandoning the Cayetano administration's plans for a privately built addition to the Halawa Correctional Center to replace the Oahu Community Correctional Center in Kalihi.
"If she does anything with prisons, she should have supported the bill that we had so that it could have already been in motion as far as the expansion at Halawa," he said.
He also questioned reports Lingle might seek $38 million more to build a prison on Maui instead of using $33 million already approved to fix up the existing Maui Community Correctional Center.
Lingle has said she's concerned that current overcrowding and poor conditions in the existing prisons could lead to lawsuits or disturbances.
Bunda said that in any talk about a light-rail transit system, "the bottom line on the transportation issue is that if we're going to move forward on any issue, the county, the state and the federal government need to come together."
Say said whether it's the city's BRT system using buses, an elevated highway or a light rail system, finding money to pay for it will be the key.
"I'm open to any project, but you tell me how you're going to finance it that the public will agree upon," he said.
