Crunch time at Legislature

As the Legislature moves into its final push to reconcile differences over the proposals that are still alive, things can get pretty frenzied and confusing — with most of the action obscured in the murkiness of the conference-committee process. So it’s useful to consider the surviving bills through the clarifying lens of Hawaii’s important long-term priorities.

Last year, during the first half of the current biennium, the local repercussions of a global recession and lagging tax receipts forced lawmakers to close a huge fiscal gap. Now that most of budgetary bloodletting seems to be behind it, the priority needs to return to rebuilding the foundations for long-term economic and social stability.

There are numerous bills that are elements in this mission, for good or ill.

The measure that has drawn the most virulent opposition is Senate Bill 755, which in its current iteration contains authorization for broad exemptions from some environmental review processes, intended to speed the progress of select construction projects. The state’s leadership, including the Abercrombie administration, say these projects are largely improvements to existing facilities and so would have minimal impact. Environmental advocates are incensed, and understandably so.

Gary Hooser, a former state senator and now director of the Office of Environmental Quality Control, notes there already are ways to minimize delays for less environmentally sensitive projects, without taking the step of a blanket exemption.

If simplification is needed in Chapter 343, the state’s environmental review statute, making those changes through a deliberate process would pare down unproductive delays in a more permanent way and with greater clarity. Permanence and increased clarity in regulation would be assets to long-term planning, for both government actions and projects of the private sector.

Also in the interest of better planning for Hawaii’s preferred future, the Legislature should rethink House Bill 2819, now the vehicle for the proposed residential development of two parcels in the Kakaako Makai district now owned by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

The bill would exempt the two parcels from a current law that legislators wisely passed to ban residential development in this part of Kakaako. Allowing residential development — which in the urban zone inevitably means a highrise — would boost the value of OHA’s land. It also would brush aside years of planning and mar the community’s vision for this last open piece of urban waterfront. Hawaii doesn’t want to lose the chance to realize a great community asset — a mix of retail and noncommercial uses — in this prized area.

Other bills that should concern the voting public:

» HB 2760: It’s good to see both state and county officials advancing toward a "Complete Streets" approach toward transportation projects, ensuring that they accommodate pedestrians and cyclists along with motorized vehicles. The Legislature, which adopted the broad policy three years ago, now has advanced this bill to implement the policy in specific budgeted plans.

» SB 2785: The construction of an interisland cable linking electrical grids of Maui, Molokai and Lanai with Oahu is an important step toward the integration of more renewable energy sources. It’s a matter of immense controversy on the neighbor islands, where proposals for wind turbines have worried the community. However, this bill would not yet mandate any particular technology — or even the cable itself — but would create the needed regulatory framework.

» SB 2320: This measure would bolster vitally needed funds for the Kupuna Care program. Enabling Hawaii’s seniors to "age in place" through such supports remains an important component of future planning.

» HB 2483: The Senate has rightly rescued the proposal to charge a fee for single-use shopping bags, which would benefit a watershed protection fund and curb at least one use of plastics. This remains the most sensible way of reducing the waste stream, which ought to concern an island state.

As the Capitol’s conference committees begin their work this week, the hubbub of public discourse will subside, with many decisions hammered out by a relative few. But voters should still remind their legislative leaders — by phone, email or any way they can — that they’ll be accountable for decisions that benefit the wider community into the future, perhaps for decades after they leave office.