Legislature wrapping up in a conservative mood

This is the state Legislature’s last week of the regular 2013 session.

There was a modest changing of the guard among legislative leaders.

Both the House and Senate have new leaders in charge, Rep. Joe Souki and Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, although the general direction of both chambers continued with little change.

The House dissidents became the House majority and Rep. Sylvia Luke was installed as finance committee chairwoman. She turned out to be a drama-avoiding, fiscal conservative who helped turn in a state budget slightly less costly than the one offered by Gov. Neil Abercrombie.

House Republicans joined in a coalition with Democrats and that apparently was the last anyone saw of the seven. In past sessions, the GOP was ignored because their numbers were inconsequential; this year they apparently strayed into a field of quicksand and were never heard from again.

This was the year when the Legislature appeared on the verge of doing a lot.

Lawmakers talked themselves down from the ledge and their open promise of action turned mostly into an avowal to really study the problems for several years.

Some issues like gambling were quickly disposed of, so what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, not Waikiki.

Other issues, like the offer of a private firm to buy some of the state’s money-losing hospital system, were ignored.

Voters and potential new voters had no help from the Legislature as calls for same-day voter registration were killed. Hawaii continues to boast the worst voter participation in the nation, and despite studies that show same-day registration and vote-by-mail strategies can boost voter turnout, nothing was done.

The Legislature was of an equally negative mind about nearly all of Abercrombie’s requests for more money.

The governor, who had scheduled a non-news conference Monday afternoon to announce what everyone already knew, said that he was running for re-election. With U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa announcing she would run for the U.S. Senate and not governor, Abercrombie’s candidacy is already in the winner’s column.

So Abercrombie’s pleas for either a new tax or increase in fees on soda, plastic bags, land transfers (conveyances), tobacco, general excise and hotel rooms will all have to wait for his second term.

Remaining untouched was the Abercrombie tax department’s rearranging of the solar tax credits, which officials feared were costing the state as much as $175 million. Moves by the Legislature to modify the tax department plan failed last week, so the new rates remain.

What also remains is paying for people to do the work of government.

Judging by the amount of money either ponied up, pledged or discussed, this legislative session was mostly about paying the salaries and benefits of Hawaii’s public workers.

After three years of having public workers gnawing at his administration, Abercrombie was able to reach agreement with nearly all the public worker unions. No final price tag has been put on the raises but some estimates are as high as an extra $1 billion over the life of the contracts.

That figure, however, is peanuts compared to paying the pension and medical payments for those workers.

"The unfunded liabilities for the Hawaii employer-union health benefits trust fund is between $15,000,000,000 and $17,000,000,000," the Legislature warns in one of two bills designed to start dealing with the debt.

The toughest-talking bill, House Bill 546, sets the state on a course to pay down the debt in regularly ordered payments and if the state and counties don’t cough up the money, the money is to be directly taken from state tax collections.

The actual deadline for starting the program is several years away, so lawmakers still have time to dream up a Plan B, but right now, the clock is ticking.

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