The big ideas to fix the schools, protect the environment, build homes and provide relief to taxpayers are still on the table as the Legislature approaches a key voting deadline on Tuesday.

The progress of the proposals leaves some advocates cautiously optimistic about a productive session as the 2,500 bills introduced last month are whittled down to the hundreds that will pass this week between House and Senate during the first crossover. "This year, far more than last year, the government is responding. They have heard the cry of the people," said the Rev. Bob Nakata, an advocate for the homeless.

Since this is an election year, lawmakers will want to appear responsive, and the session is expected to be more collaborative than acrimonious as elected officials in both parties try to please voters, who have identified taxes, home and fuel prices, education and the environment among the year's pressing issues.

Nevertheless, not everything will survive Tuesday's vote that precedes Thursday's crossover, and advocates will need to channel their efforts if they want to see ideas reintroduced this session.

Gov. Linda Lingle and lawmakers have collaborated on an energy package meant to reduce the state's dependence on oil.

However, Jeff Mikulina, director of the Sierra Club's Hawai'i chapter, wonders whether the bipartisan effort will be enough, since it cuts out some of the most aggressive proposals introduced in the administration's bill.

"Particularly on the House side, we're frustrated that some of the most significant reforms aren't moving," he said.

Bills not exchanged this week are essentially dead, but the ideas contained within them can still be inserted into other bills.

Mikulina hopes to see that happen with the administration's more controversial proposals, such as having the utilities share in any fluctuations in fossil fuel prices, instead of passing the entire increase to the consumers.

Another energy issue — whether to repeal the gas cap — has become one of the session's most contentious issues.

While some senators, including gas cap author Sen. Ron Menor, agreed that adjustments are warranted, House members are pushing for an outright repeal.

Key senators have said they will not hear the House's repeal bill, but Rep. Bob Herkes, D-5th (Kau, S. Kona), said they will have to consider the repeal at the conference table, if not at a public hearing.

"If (Menor) sends his bill over to us, we're putting our bill into his bill and then we have to go into conference, so his ideas and our ideas will collectively be at the conference table," Herkes said.

Tax relief, including the governor's proposal to return roughly half of a $574 million budget surplus to taxpayers, has yet to be discussed in detail, but Senate President Robert Bunda, D-22nd (North Shore, Wahiawa), supports raising the standard deduction and widening tax brackets to help working-poor and middle-class families.

House Democrats have suggested they would pass out some form of tax relief, but offered no specifics, pending new Council on Revenue projections on the size of the state budget surplus.

House Minority Leader Rep. Lynn Finnegan, R-32nd ('Aliamanu, Airport, Mapunapuna), who noted the state has been criticized nationally for taxing even its poor families, said Republicans intend to keep pressuring the Legislature on tax relief.

"If some measure of tax relief doesn't go out, then we aren't being reasonable and we should be accountable for that," she said.

The Democrats' "Fix Our Schools Act," which proposes spending $160 million on a backlog of repair and maintenance projects at public schools, is still alive. House Education Chairman Roy Takumi wants the Department of Education to get enough money to complete classroom renovations at its oldest schools, which could slash the $525 million backlog by 70 percent.

Finnegan plans to urge lawmakers to consider whether the DOE has the capacity to take on more projects, as the department and the administration can't agree on whether or not the DOE is able to spend all the construction funds it has already been given.

"If we end up funding everything, I think that's great, but before we do that we really need to take a look at it and ask, 'Are we really being responsible and are we really fixing the way that we fix the schools?'" Finnegan said.

Nakata, an advocate for the homeless, is encouraged by lawmakers' efforts to put more money into affordable housing, but says something needs to be done now to help the homeless and soon-to-be homeless.

"In the short run, homelessness is likely to increase until these other solutions are online."

One immediate solution he sees is repealing a law that prevents the homeless from moving into parks. He wants the homeless to work with police to create small supervised communities in public places until more homes become available.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.