A post-Inouye Hawaii, a lingering stalemate with the teachers union and Hawaii’s most expensive construction project ever are expected to remain in the headlines this year.

As events unfold in 2013, the effects from each of those fronts will likely be felt by Hawaii residents for years to come.

News of the passing of U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, 88, on Dec. 17 from respiratory complications was still reverberating as 2012 came to a close.

Most Hawaii residents didn’t know a time when the iconic Inouye, a member of Congress since 1959, was not their senator. But more significant for Hawaii residents than his longevity and his national prominence was Inouye’s ability to bring federal funding to the islands. From the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard to the state’s highways, airports and harbors, the University of Hawaii, the military’s presence here and more, there are scant few — if any — federally sourced projects in the state that did not bear Inouye’s stamp.

Hawaii residents will be watching most keenly how well Inouye’s newly appointed successor, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, and a reconstituted Hawaii congressional delegation will fare in the funding wars.

Inouye had 50 years of seniority and was chairman of the key Senate Appropriations Committee, and the retiring Sen. Daniel Akaka, 88, has been in his Senate seat since 1990.

In the next Congress, Schatz will be Hawaii’s senior senator despite taking office just last week. He will be joined by former congresswoman Mazie Hirono, a six-year veteran of the House. U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, entering her second term, will be joined by U.S. Rep.-elect Tulsi Gabbard, who will replace Hirono as the second House member.

It won’t be easy to measure their progress, said Neal Milner, a UH-Manoa political science professor.

In fact, he said, the most critical work will likely be going on behind closed doors in re-establishing the contacts and relationships that Inouye built up through the past half-century.

"They are going to have to attempt to re-establish themselves with the people who are now in charge — those networks of influence," Milner said.

Even Inouye himself "didn’t suddenly become influential," Milner added. But Inouye proved to be a masterful and patient networker, and he recognized that working those contacts, not seeking out publicity or notoriety, was the key to success in bringing federal dollars back to Hawaii, he said.

One public sign of influence is the committee assignments that each of the four will be able to secure in the 113th Congress, which begins Thursday.

"What you try to do is get on the committees with the greatest interests to you and your state," Milner said.

There’s been anxiety and worry that with Inouye and Akaka gone, millions of federal dollars could be lost overnight.

Milner said that’s not likely to happen, at least not initially. "It isn’t that I’m that optimistic," he said. "But government doesn’t work that quickly. And (Inouye) built those networks of support over time, and those networks don’t disappear entirely right away."

Milner said Schatz’s role as Hawaii chairman of President Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential run could mean the new senator can call in some chits with the White House at critical times.

FUNDING, RULING PUT RAIL BACK ON TRACK

ONE ISSUE the fledgling delegation won’t be saddled with in the coming session is pressing for federal funding for Honolulu’s $5.26 billion rail project.

Federal transit officials signed off on funding on Dec. 19, two days after Inouye’s death, guaranteeing the city will obtain $1.55 billion in federal money for the project.

Construction of the rail transit project is expected to get under way in earnest this year after key hurdles were cleared in the past two months.

Former city managing director Kirk Caldwell bested former Gov. Ben Cayetano to win the Honolulu mayor’s race in an election that became a referendum on rail as Cayetano vowed to kill the project if elected.

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation and rail supporters won another key victory last week when federal Judge A. Wallace Tashima declined to set aside federal approval for the entire project and instead halted construction on only the downtown phase of the route pending further study.

Construction of the first phase began in April 2012 but was halted in August by a Hawaii Supreme Court mandate that the city complete an archaeological survey of the entire route before construction can resume. Rail officials said survey work was supposed to be completed in December and that they hope construction can continue in the fall.

HART executive director Dan Grabauskas said he expects the entire system to be fully operational in 2019 "as planned."

Cayetano and UH law professor Randall Roth, among those who brought the lawsuit against the city, said they will talk to their attorneys about a possible appeal of Tashima’s Dec. 27 ruling. Roth told the Star-Advertiser, "There’s a lot of litigation yet to go."

But Milner said the rail opponents’ best chance for killing the project died with Cayetano’s election defeat in November. "My prediction is (the project) will move slowly, have its obstacles, keep going, and be significantly farther ahead a year from now than it is now," Milner said.

Cayetano’s defeat not only denied rail opponents an opportunity to put someone in position to stop the project, but also showed that opposition to the project is not as significant as the opponents had hoped. "That to me is the game-changer," Milner said, adding that he thinks the best that rail opponents can hope for now is to delay the project.

"It’s like H-3," he said, recalling the series of lawsuits against the controversial freeway. "As screwy as that process was, it kept stumbling forward and eventually it got built."

COMPLAINT LOOMS OVER CONTRACT TALKS

AMONG THE MOST pressing issues for Gov. Neil Abercrombie in 2013 is the contract dispute with teachers and the Hawaii State Teachers Association union that has dragged on for 18 months.

The state wants teachers back at the bargaining table while HSTA wants a six-year agreement that teachers had initially rejected but later voted to approve.

Public school teachers have been working under a "last, best and final" offer that the state unliterally put into place on July 1, 2011.

While a strike authorization vote, and a strike, are possible developments in 2013, former HSTA executive director Joan Husted, who is watching the current dispute from the sidelines, said she’s optimistic a settlement can, and should, be reached soon.

"I believe both parties want to get it settled … and that’s a good start," Husted said.

A complaint filed by the union before the Hawaii Labor Relations Board alleging the state violated the rights of teachers by imposing a contract without having it ratified is "hanging over the bargaining like a dark cloud" and needs to be acted on by the board soon, Husted said.

Once that is cleared, the parties will likely want to reach a settlement before the state Legislature closes its budget, because the state, the union, teachers and the community don’t want the impasse to drag into another year, she said.

Key issues for settlement include wage and medical benefits, and the amount of input teachers will be able to have in the development of evaluation criteria, Husted said. "If they can resolve their differences on those two things, they’re within reach of a settlement," she said.

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Correction: In a previous version of this story, UH-Manoa political science professor Neal Milner said new Senate Appropriations Chariman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., was an ally of Inouye and could play a role preserving Hawaii’s federal funding. However, Leahy declined the post and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., became Appropriations chairwoman.