[ OUR OPINION ]
Limit all state work
to honest contractorsCONTRACTORS who have been fined severely for making illegal political contributions are not allowed to bid on state contracts, and that policy should be extended to the University of Hawaii. Evan Dobelle, the university's president, endorses such a policy in principle and the Board of Regents should adopt it at its next meeting.
THE ISSUE
University of Hawaii regents are considering a prohibition of bids for university work by contractors who have made illegal political contributions.
The state Procurement Policy Board put into effect in November an administrative rule that allows it to prohibit bidding on contracts by any company fined more than $5,000 for campaign spending violations. The state Campaign Spending Commission has issued fines totaling more than $1 million to 75 government contractors for making illegal political donations. As many as 40 other companies are under investigation.
Regent Ted Hong has proposed that UH change its procurement rules to bar bids from contractors who have been convicted or pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign donations. His proposal would apply the ban to company employees and family members fined more than $5,000 by the Campaign Spending Commission, incorporating state and federal violations of money laundering, credit card fraud, computer crimes, false advertising, forgery, theft and similar crimes.
Such a ban should not be limited to companies or officials convicted of such crimes. Perpetrators have adopted a tactic of pleading no contest under agreements that allow the charges to be dropped after a certain period of good behavior, thus avoiding convictions.
The policy should be in place before the university begins considering bids for construction of a new campus for UH-West Oahu. "Whatever form that project takes on, it will be a cash cow," Hong said. "We have to make sure the university remains free of the corrupt alliance of the past."
Awarding work to contractors in return for political contributors has been so ingrained in city and state government that concerns have been raised about the possibility that most Hawaii contractors will be driven away by such a ban. "We might not have any bidders," regent Charles Kawakami said when Hong made the proposal last month.
Such an occurrence would prove that corruption has been as horrendous as imagined. If that turns out to be truly the case, procurement policies of the state and UH might have to be changed to allow bids from contractors who have been clean for a number of years.
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Don’t even consider
raiding tobacco fundANYONE tempted to dip into the state fund created by the national tobacco settlement to help fix the state's budget problems should consider the calamity that resulted in Minnesota. When that state halted an ambitious anti-tobacco campaign last year, the number of teens who consider taking up cigarettes increased quickly, dramatically and dangerously.
THE ISSUE
A survey of youths in Minnesota shows they became more susceptible to smoking after an anti-tobacco campaign was halted.
Minnesota's annual funding for its tobacco prevention and control program was reduced last July by more than 80 percent -- from $23.7 million in 2000 to $4.6 million. The cutback brought an end to the youth-focused Target Market campaign.
Less than six months later, a survey found that Minnesota youngsters aged 12 to 17 who reported being susceptible to smoking rose from 43.3 percent to 52.9 percent. Susceptibility was measured from those who responded other than "strongly disagree" to the statement, "You will smoke a cigarette in the next year."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the survey findings in Minnesota are consistent with results of a previous survey in Massachusetts, where a large increase in illegal tobacco sales to minors followed a 92 percent cut in that state's tobacco control program.
Hawaii receives $40 million to $60 million a year from the 1998 settlement with major tobacco companies. The state began by allotting one-fourth of the revenue to tobacco prevention and control, but that was cut in half by the 2001 Legislature so some of the money could be spent on construction of a University of Hawaii medical school.
Only four states meet the disease control centers' recommendation for funding of tobacco prevention. Hawaii's budget for the current fiscal year is $8.9 million, short of the centers' minimum recommendation but sixth best among states in comparison with the recommendations. If that seems like a lot, consider that more than $525 million in health-care costs and lost productivity in Hawaii are attributed to smoking.
Despite the anti-tobacco campaign, nearly 27 percent of Hawaii's high school students have begun smoking, and only one in 50 will succeed in quitting later in life. Nine of every 10 adult smokers began the habit as teenagers, and the anti-tobacco campaign is crucial in keeping those numbers as small as possible.
