Nearing the halfway point of the legislative session, the state House and Senate have traded bills that would increase the minimum wage, finance preschool for low-income children, lift the cap on hotel room tax revenue to the counties, and guide residential development in Kakaako.
House and Senate leaders said after positioning hundreds of bills for exchange between the chambers by Thursday’s deadline that they would still like to settle the minimum wage debate early, avoiding the pressure of end-of-session negotiations.
The Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would gradually increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by January 2017 and provide businesses with an undetermined tip credit. The House passed a bill that would bring the minimum wage to $10 by January 2018 and offer a $1 tip credit. Businesses would only be able to apply the tip credit to workers who make at least 250 percent of the poverty level, or about $30,000 a year.
The $7.25-an-hour minimum wage has not been raised in Hawaii since 2007, and the issue has become a political priority for Democrats.
"I think people would like to get this off the table so we can concentrate on all the other issues," said Senate President Donna Mercado Kim (D, Kalihi Valley-Moanalua-Halawa).
House Majority Leader Scott Saiki (D, Downtown-Kakaako-McCully) would also prefer to act soon on the minimum wage. "The House would like to resolve this earlier rather than later, and to avoid conference if possible," he said.
The immediate focus in the House is the $12 billion state budget. On Wednesday afternoon the House Finance Committee will hold a hearing on the budget, with the hopes of sending a draft over to the Senate by next week.
The state Council on Revenues will meet Tuesday to determine whether to adjust the state’s revenue forecast, which, along with the budget draft, could help set the tone on state spending for the remainder of the session.
With voters preparing to decide in November whether public money should go toward private preschool, lawmakers have tentatively advanced bills sought by Gov. Neil Abercrombie on early childhood education. One bill would implement an early childhood education program if voters approve the constitutional amendment, while others would finance preschool for low-income children next school year at a select number of public schools and fund family-and-child interaction learning programs.
Lawmakers have also moved legislation that would make kindergarten mandatory.
In a nod to the financial demands facing the counties, the House has sent a bill to the Senate that would lift the $93 million-a-year cap on hotel room tax revenue that goes to the counties. The cap, imposed to help the state get through the recession, has frustrated county mayors who have to budget for the local costs of tourism, such as roads, parks and public safety. Under the bill, counties would get 44.8 percent of the hotel room tax revenue collected by the state, a share that should exceed $93 million annually.
Several bills would guide development in burgeoning Kakaako, including legislation on affordable housing, height limits, administrative appeal and judicial review of high-rise condominium projects.
Lawmakers also advanced a bill that would give the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs residential development rights on land in Kakaako transferred to OHA in a $200 million settlement with the state in 2012 over former crown land revenue.
In the House, lawmakers moved bills that would ban smoking in public housing units, abolish sentences of life in prison without parole for juvenile offenders and lift the statute of limitations on first- and second-degree sexual assault crimes and the continuous sexual abuse of children younger than 14.
The House also pushed through bills that would establish income tax credits for manufacturing costs and new hotel construction and public financing for state House election campaigns.
In a symbolic move, the House backed a constitutional amendment that would ask voters whether free speech should include political spending to influence elections. The constitutional amendment is intended to show the state’s disappointment with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a 2010 decision which held that corporations and labor unions can spend unlimited amounts of money on politics as long as the spending is not coordinated with candidates.
Rep. Marcus Oshiro (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore-Poamoho) sought to block the amendment, since it would have no practical legal effect on federal campaign finance law, but his attempt was defeated by voice vote.
In the Senate, senators supported a bill that would explore a potential land exchange between the state and Dole Food Co. that could preserve agricultural land in Wahiawa and the North Shore.
The Senate also moved a bill that would enable the Hawaii Health Systems Corp., the state’s public hospital system, to change into a nonprofit.
While GMO labeling bills have not advanced, senators kept alive a bill that would create a task force to study whether the state should regulate the agricultural use of genetically modified organisms.
In an issue that grew out of the special session on gay marriage last fall, the Senate backed a bill that would require lobbyists to disclose spending within 30 days of a special session.
