Posted on: Wednesday, May 2, 2007
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VOLCANIC ASH
Our 2007 Legislature: High hopes, low points
By
David Shapiro
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With a $700 million surplus, we had high hopes this year that Gov. Linda Lingle and the Legislature would deliver on promises of economic innovation, tax reform, improved public education and more affordable housing.
But the session has failed to produce major advances on any of these fronts. Also unfulfilled were promises of ethics reform and cleaner elections, as Democrats focused mostly on stripping the Republican Lingle of the powers voters twice conferred on her.
I could fume on, but a better way to wrap up this Legislature is to revisit some of the weekly highlights, culled from the Friday "flASHbacks" in my blog:
Things started shakily when Lingle issued a Top-10 list of Democrats' stupidest responses to her State of the State speech. Democrats responded with their own Top-10 list of Lingle proposals that would die without hearings.
Lingle and legislators struggled over how to spend the $75 million tax credit for the abandoned Ko Olina aquarium. They couldn't remember if the money was intended for fish, economic development or paying off campaign contributors.
In late January, 70 mph winds knocked out power, blew away roofs and left island roads strewn with debris. And the Legislature was just getting warmed up.
Lawmakers pressed Lingle to bring home Hawai'i prisoners serving their time on the Mainland. What priorities we have. We send away our brightest kids for lack of decent jobs and bring back our jailbirds.
Legislators considered giving same-sex couples the same rights as married couples. Just what we needed, more people with the right to torture each other.
A major milestone of the session was the "crossover" deadline. That's when mere confusion crossed over to bedlam.
Sen. Clayton Hee tried to torpedo Glenn Kim's nomination for Circuit Court judge, claiming Kim lacked a proper "judicial temperament." For the hot-headed Hee to lecture anybody on temperament was like Paris Hilton bashing Britney Spears for immodesty.
After losing on Kim, Hee made nice by throwing a barbecue for senators featuring rides on his horse, Lucky. It's always sad when a kid needs a pony to get other boys and girls to play with him.
Lawmakers said a computer virus that swept the Capitol hampered their efficacy for a day. They had no excuse for the other 59 days.
Senators refused to confirm Iwalani White, known as "The Hammer," to head the state prisons. It would be easier to solve jail overcrowding by handing out saws.
As consumers felt punked by rising prices, lawmakers stepped up state monitoring of medical insurers and oil refiners. The semi-monopolies replaced the law of supply and demand with their own economic model called "Stick 'Em Up."
Former Hawai'i resident Sanjaya Malakar was voted off "American Idol" after weeks of abuse from one of the judges. The poor kid learned what Peter Young felt like when he went before the Senate for a new term as state land director.
Some lawmakers wanted to include rats among pets protected under a proposed animal-cruelty bill. Don't those legislators ever stop looking out for themselves?
And my favorite session quote, from Sen. Fred Hemmings after a spat with Sen. Donna Mercado Kim: "For the record, I do respect Sen. Kim and agree with her on many issues. For the most part, she is fiscally conservative, but we certainly part ways on this one. This is an issue dispute and has nothing to do with my respect for Donna Kim. Plus, I don't want her to gouge my eyes out."
David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.
