With Hawaii’s top legislative leaders lined up against him in this year’s Democratic primary, Gov. David Ige must have figured he would be the target of a few snarky comments this week.
As the 2018 session of the Legislature closed Thursday, lawmakers expressed pride in passing bills to address homelessness, the housing shortage and damage from flooding on Kauai but had few words of praise for the governor.
House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke said the Ige administration failed to provide the Legislature with a clear plan for collecting state taxes on transient accommodations brokers such as Airbnb, and the issue was left unresolved.
On the homeless problem, legislators said they took matters into their own hands by authorizing “ohana zones” after the administration sent conflicting signals on whether such officially sanctioned living areas for the homeless were acceptable. It is still unclear whether Ige will agree to the ohana zones.
Lawmakers also cited examples of disagreements among Ige’s departments on paid family leave, another issue left unresolved. The family leave bill that finally passed calls for a study of the subject.
Ige is being challenged in the Democratic primary this year by U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, and each of those pointed observations by lawmakers fits neatly with Hanabusa’s primary campaign theme, which is that Ige has exhibited a lack of leadership.
However, House Speaker Scott Saiki said the lack of engagement by the governor’s office has been liberating.
“Not to sound hokey, but I feel like this year the Legislature really acted like a Legislature,” and the result was a historic session, he said.
“Because we’re a one-party state, in the past there’s been a lot of deference given to the executive branch. The Legislature defers to the executive to come up with ideas and solutions and work-outs and things like that, but this time was really the legislative branch that did that and took that on,” said Saiki (D, Downtown-Kakaako-McCully).
For his part, Ige said he and lawmakers “have alignment on 90 percent of the priorities.”
He said it was smart, careful financial management by his administration that made it possible for lawmakers to quickly appropriate $125 million for flood damage on Kauai and Oahu, and to commit $200 million to the Rental Housing Revolving Fund to help finance development of affordable rentals.
“We have been advocating increased investment into (the Rental Housing Revolving Fund) for the last four years, so we’re glad that the Legislature is catching up to the programs that we’ve been advocating for,” he said.
He added with a chuckle, “I mean, they might want to try to repackage it to make it look a little different, but essentially it’s the program that we’ve been doing now for four years. We’ve made significant progress in building homes for our community. We look forward to looking at those measures as an extension of that program.”
Lawmakers have been unusually public about their preference for Hanabusa, and just days before the session opened, Senate President Ron Kouchi, Senate Vice President Michelle Kidani, House Speaker Scott Saiki and House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke all attended the formal launch of Hanabusa’s campaign.
Later in the session, Ige publicly criticized Saiki, Luke, Kouchi and Senate Ways and Means Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz for signing an invitation to a Hanabusa fundraiser. Ige alleged that the letter sent a clear message that anyone who wanted action from the Legislature needed to donate to Hanabusa, a charge that all of the lawmakers denied.
An obviously angry Luke said Ige was behaving “almost like this desperate caged animal,” but later apologized on the House floor for her remarks.
When asked whether the strained relationship between lawmakers and Ige affected the session, Kouchi replied, “The work product speaks for itself.”
“Look at the budget draft that the Senate put out and you will see that it is a great document for the people of Hawaii. The final product in the collaboration between the House and Senate has resulted in an incredibly productive budget for the people of the state of Hawaii,” Kouchi said.
“I hope this ends the baseless accusations and we can reflect on the great product that we’ve put forward for the people of Hawaii,” he said. “This clearly was, in my mind, an instance of putting politics on the side and the people of Hawaii first.”
Luke agreed that lawmakers’ support for Hanabusa really did not have an impact on the session. “We’re all elected to do the people’s work.”
“The bottom line is, the work of the Legislature is something the governor can take credit for when he signs the bill,” she said. “It’s not something that other candidates will have an opportunity to go and sign it into law and congratulate the Legislature at the same time.”
