Honolulu Weekly

Linda Lingle / Statement from the Governor

This session, my Administration introduced an ambitious and robust legislative package aimed at creating jobs, stimulating our economy and planning for the future, and which was also in synch with major federal initiatives. Measures like the Highways Modernization Plan, Recreational Renaissance and Hawaii Broadband Initiative all had bipartisan support at the beginning of the year, but then died mysteriously in the final days of session. This was a major disappointment for the state departments and community partners who worked so hard to develop these innovative plans.

Preventing such disappointments from happening again will be up to legislators but also to members of the public, who can encourage legislators to reconsider their decisions by voicing their concerns in e-mails, phone calls and public testimony during the 2010 session, when all of these measures will be reintroduced.

If legislators refuse to listen to the public, the public should vote to replace the legislators.

My Administration’s main focus is doing everything we can to create jobs and boost Hawaii’s economy. This has involved launching economic stimulus measures, like our $1.8 billion capital improvement project (CIP) initiative. This stimulus plan is related to our efforts to close the projected gap in our state budget in a way that will minimize the impact on Hawaii’s taxpayers. This is why we opposed tax increases to balance the budget and have pursued agreements with our public employee unions that reflect a sense of shared sacrifice during these historically difficult economic times.

Unfortunately, Democrat legislators have given the public unions a false sense of hope by indicating that with tax increases now in place, they will not have to make any concessions like their counterparts in the private sector. This has distracted from our good-faith efforts to prevent the layoffs of public employees while also doing what is best for all the people of Hawaii.

The general public may not be aware of how many critical decisions by the Legislature are made behind closed doors during conference committees, instead out in the open during public hearings. This means that when a bill fails to pass at the last minute, we often have the same questions as the public: “What happened? How come?” Several innovative measures introduced by our Administration, and which had broad bipartisan support, suffered this fate this past legislative session, and were killed during secret sessions and with no explanation. Until this process is improved and made more transparent, I fear that the Hawaii public will continue to be kept in the dark on issues that affect their quality of life.