Lecture on budget bills rebounds on Abercrombie

It was the geekiest political crisis of the year. The state Constitution requires that a law be passed every year authorizing the state to sell bonds and the state can only sell bonds up to the limit authorized.

This year the two bills didn’t match.

Rep. Sylvia Luke, chairwoman of the House Finance Committee and Sen. David Ige, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, didn’t catch the error, but Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s budget department did.

Some rearranging of state finances, a bit of tugging on the budget and everything was going to be fine. But Abercrombie, his hand quivering as he grasped a sheaf of budget documents, held a news conference to say he wouldn’t stand for this sort of sloppy work.

"There is no way around it. You either do your job or you don’t. I have a job to do. I am not about to sign a bill that is close. I am not about to sign a bill that is almost legal. The budget bill and the bond authorization bill are supposed to balance — they don’t," said the governor.

This was Abercrombie at his most stern. He was clearly channeling his famous quote from 2011 when he informed the state: "I am the governor, I’m not your pal, I’m not your counselor, I am the governor."

Ige, of course, is not just another Ways and Means chairman. He is Abercrombie’s Democratic primary challenger, and he is proving to be a remarkably strong threat.

So if there was a political tinge to Abercrombie’s tough-guy persona, it became clear Tuesday when William Kaneko, Abercrombie’s longtime campaign manager, issued a follow-up press release.

"Sen. Ige can’t add," said Kaneko. "As chair of the Senate money committee, he was responsible for the $46 million budget discrep-ancy. This is a significant error that could jeopardize the state’s operations and expenditures."

It was a simple compare-and-contrast exercise, and one that Abercrombie hopes will show him the budget leader.

Fellow Democrats down in the Legislature, however, are not likely to help Abercrombie make a point at Ige’s expense.

Luke, for instance, reacted to Abercrombie’s news conference by saying the entire bond issue was complicated by Abercrom-bie’s last-minute deal to buy a conservation easement for portions of the North Shore’s Turtle Bay Resort.

"It’s not as if the problem was just created by the Legislature. The problem was complicated because of the last-minute issue that came up with Turtle Bay," Luke said.

"And instead of just recognizing that, and trying to continue to work with the Legislature on how to resolve this issue, he goes and calls a press conference to pick a fight with his primary opponent, basically."

Ige, who backs down to no one when it comes to understanding and pushing some of the most arcane legislative budgeting measures, had a mild response to Abercrombie.

"The errors are technical in nature and are easily resolvable, if the Legislature and administration work together on a solution. I am ready and willing to do this to quickly resolve the situation," Ige said.

Although he served in both the state House and Senate, Abercrombie does not get along with most of the Legislature’s leaders.

When the session started, Senate President Donna Mercado Kim tried to stop Abercrombie from crowing about the $800 million budget surplus.

"In order to pay for his (Abercrombie’s) spending, he had to raise the taxes. And because we didn’t raise the taxes, we had to cut his budget," Kim said. "And because we cut his budget, we are now in the situation we’re in — with a surplus," Kim said.

Abercrombie had first based his campaign on the big surplus, but when the Council on Revenues lowered the state’s financial forecast, the projected surplus disappeared along with Abercrombie’s easiest campaign pitch.

Ige is the challenger, so the ball is always in his court, but so far Abercrombie’s tactics on defense do not appear to be winning.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.