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Lingle leaves little room
for controversy in her speech

THE ISSUE Governor Lingle has called for tax, housing and education measures helping lower- and middle-income families.

PARTISAN rancor between Governor Lingle and the last two sessions of the Democratic-controlled Legislature appears to be missing from the current session. Both sides are making tax cuts a high priority during a booming economy and seem intent on helping families struggling to get by.

Bitter differences about how best to battle substance abuse or whether to create multiple school boards may have been laid to rest. Democratic victories in November's election left Lingle with fewer allies in the Legislature, and resurrecting those past proposals would have been futile. Her progressive agenda has left Democrats with little to complain about except perhaps being co-opted.

Lingle seems to have agreed with Democratic leaders that tax cuts for the poor and middle class are the best way to benefit from the rebounding tourist industry. In yesterday's address to the Legislature, Lingle called for "modest yet important" $63 million in tax cuts over the next two years, mostly by raising the income tax standard deduction.

Increasing the standard deduction would take 27,000 people off the state's tax rolls and reduce taxes for 78,000, she said. Nearly three-fourths of families with incomes of less than $30,000 use standard deductions instead of itemizing.

Her tax proposal includes a new food and medical tax credit that benefits 515,000 people, the 40 percent who earn up to $40,000 a year. Those include workers who make too little to be be taxed so do not stand to benefit from the rise in the standard deduction.

Lingle said she also will use the $58 million in federal welfare funds to make direct payments of $200 to $240 a month to about 10,000 working parents. She said the policy change is "to reward work and encourage self-sufficiency."

In July, the governor announced a plan of adding 17,000 affordable units to the state's housing stock during the next six years. She told legislators she will need help from the private sector and every level of government to accomplish that goal.

Her main school proposals are to provide charter schools "a fair share" of the state's education money and to provide financial assistance to middle-income families sending their children to preschools. Studies have shown that many of the children absent from such schools are from families whose incomes are too much for them to qualify for subsidies and who can't afford preschool costs.

Lingle made no mention of rapid rail transit except to say that Mufi Hannemann's election as Honolulu mayor provides "an opportunity to look at that issue again." Both have supported rail transit in the past. The Legislature's role is to authorize the City Council to raise sales taxes to be combined with federal dollars to pay for the system.