Chances are you are not spending much time mulling over home rule.

Whether or not you remembered the milk, figured out how to get the kids to do their homework, and whether Aunt Edith needs surgery probably are all more in your mind.

Still, whether or not the state of Hawaii allows a shopping center and 50-story time-share hotel on the grounds of Waikiki’s Jefferson Elementary School might cause you to reconsider the importance of home rule.

Basically home rule means governance by local government. The state allows the county to say how tall buildings can be, what sort of sewer pipes are needed, how narrow you can make the roads and where to put the fire hydrants.

What the state gives you, however, the state can take away. That debate will now play out in the 2013 Legislature as Gov. Neil Abercrombie fights to save his Public Land Development Corp.

The idea, Abercrombie said, is all about responsibly raising money to fund the state’s Land and Natural Resources Department — the folks who bring you the state parks, beaches and mountain trails and keep Hawaii the most beautiful spot on the globe.

The idea has proven controversial in the extreme because it is a gut shot to the idea of home rule.

The PLDC gives its appointed board the power to make deals to develop state land for a share of the profits.

"It exempts projects from all county rules, zoning, ordinances, even the General Plan," said newly elected Kauai Councilman Gary Hooser.

So if you say "zoning," the state and cooperating developer will say "exemption" and the deal is done.

Abercrombie is now fashioning a go-slow approach.

"I do not want the potential for the PLDC to accomplish public good to be lost because of a failure to account for reservations about either the process or the outcome," the Democratic governor said last week.

Abercrombie wants all sides to talk story. PLDC opponents are worried that instead of singing "Kumbaya," the PLDC supporters will just shuffle off to a deal-cutting backroom.

"You can’t fix this by changing the administrative rules," said just-elected Sen. Laura Thielen.

She fears that it will just be the good old boys in the backroom slicing and dicing.

For example, Thielen points out that last year the Legislature amended the PLDC law to exempt the PLDC from following any of the rules set up for sale and lease of state land.

"This is a huge exemption. It has not gotten much discussion because all the talk is on the PLDC exemption for zoning," said Thielen, a former director of the state Land and Natural Resources Department.

Finally, don’t count the ability of self-preservation politics to enter into the PLDC argument. The state House is currently being organized. The latest count has Maui Democrat Joe Souki announcing that he has the votes to become speaker on opening day. Rep. Calvin Say, the current House leader, said he is still in the running and his ally, Rep. Marcus Oshiro, said last week he still wants to organize the House without the GOP coalition that Souki is employing.

Hooser, however, noted that it was Say through Oshiro’s Finance Committee who rushed through the exemption to the state land sale and lease laws.

"Finance Chairman Marcus Oshiro, with the approval of Speaker of the House Calvin Say, waived the normal 48-hour public notice rule and gave Hawaii residents only 115 minutes public notice."

"The House Finance Committee essentially thumbed its nose at the Constitution and at the general public — claiming it held a public meeting yet making it impossible for the majority of the public to attend, or in fact to even know that the meeting was being held," said Hooser.

To those in the state House, home rule may mean a lot more next year.

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