Gas cap bill
becomes lawGov. Lingle opposes the measure,
but said she feared the Legislature
would override a veto
Gov. Linda Lingle is allowing a bill to cap the price of gasoline sold in Hawaii to become law without her signature, but she says she hopes next year's Legislature will change or scrap it.
The governor said yesterday that the law does not go into effect until September 2005 and gives her time to ask the next Legislature to rework it.
"Who knows? There may be a change in the opinion of people who are there now, or perhaps a change of people who are there now, and our arguments will find more logical and reasonable people to deal with," Lingle said during a news conference in her office yesterday.
Lingle had the alternative of vetoing the bill (SB3193) and then working with the current law, Act 77. But that law, which also caps the price of gas, was supposed to go into effect next month. The newer bill was designed to give the state an extra year to create a formula to cap the price of gasoline.
Lingle, who opposes gas price caps, said she feared that the Democratic-controlled Legislature would go back into session and override her veto.
"In an attempt to deal with a bad law that had been shown would raise gas prices, they (the Legislature) passed another bad law. We are buying some time to go back and talk about why this bill is so bad," Lingle said.
Lingle campaigned against the original price cap in 2002, saying it would only cause prices to go up, create gas shortages and give the state an anti-business image.
The new law, Lingle said, will cause service stations to consolidate and limit competition.
A consumer group, Advocates for Consumer Rights, hailed Lingle's decision while recognizing that the governor has not dropped her opposition.
Scott Foster, with the consumer group, said the Lingle decision ended "a long, hard battle for over two years, and it was the first time we had to help pass the same law twice."
House Majority Leader Scott Saiki (D, Moiliili-McCully) said Lingle's position was inconsistent. He said that if she opposed the gas cap, she should have just vetoed it.
Saiki added that the Legislature had not planned to return in a special session. Democrats, however, had overridden seven vetoes during the legislative session that ended in May.
Lingle said yesterday that she will veto a total of 28 bills, including a campaign spending reform bill that had been amended in the closing days of the Legislature to ban contributions from out-of-state groups with no Hawaii members. But Lingle and Attorney General Mark Bennett pointed out that the bill mistakenly forbade contributions from in-state groups.
"We support campaign finance reform, but it has got to be a bill that people have taken enough time and care to write and that is not going to subject the state to liability," Bennett said.
The bill, Senate Bill 459, would forbid any committee or group in Hawaii, such as the Sierra Club, from making contributions to local candidates.
Bills to be vetoed
Gov. Linda Lingle intends to veto 28 bills, including:» A tougher campaign spending law.
» The release of student records to the legislative auditor.
» Guaranteed pay raises to state employees excluded from collective bargaining.
See the complete list of bills to be vetoed.
Bennett said the mistake was clearly a typographical error but was too large to be ignored.
Lingle also objected to the bill's attempts to ban contributions from companies doing business with the state, because she said it was so poorly drafted and unclear.
"It is crucial that those who are to be subject to a ban not be forced to guess at its application," Lingle said in her veto message.
"It is crucial that a bill regulating campaign contributions be clear in its application, well thought out and fair," Lingle said.
Saiki said the campaign spending veto would not force a special session because, he said, "Our key priorities were passed early in this year's session and were either signed into law or subjected to veto overrides prior to closing day."
"At this point we would prefer working with the governor on the vetoed bills to prepare them for action in the 2005 regular session," Saiki said.
