Petty politics mustn’t derail key measures

The action at the Capitol already has included assorted pyrotechnic sparks and pops, but the conference-committee period of the session is where the fireworks either reach their zenith or fizzle out altogether.

Last week, lawmakers reached that stage. Pros-pects seem favorable for important advances in some key policy areas. Raising the minimum wage and improving the governance of the Hawaii Community Development Authority, for example, seem within their grasp as long as the final negotiations don’t succumb to election-year dramatics.

The area where that is most likely to happen, unfortunately, is in the minimum wage, in which the state Senate opted against accepting the House version of the bill.

The bottom line here is that adjustments to the minimum wage are overdue and must begin as soon as possible. The Senate formula may be marginally better: increasing the hourly rate to $10.10 by January 2017. It gets the wage-earner to the top tier a year sooner than under the House proposal, which sets the rate ceiling at 10 cents lower.

The dime difference presents less of a hurdle in conference than the issue of the tip credit, which the House would raise to 75 cents, a level some in the Senate have opposed. But the credit would only enable employers to reduce pay that much for tipped workers earning $7 above the minimum, so a disagreement here should not be allowed to up-end a critical settlement.

State Sen. Clayton Hee, an outspoken critic of the credit, has said the Senate still has the option of accepting the House bill if talks break down, and he believes the wage hike will proceed. Let’s all hope failure will be averted.

Concerning HCDA reform efforts, the last surviving measure, House Bill 1866, has become an omnibus, carrying a selection of proposals from the original legislative package. State Rep. Scott Saiki, the House majority leader, has been in the thick of this debate and said last week that negotiations involving Kakaako residents, landowners and developers have produced an accord on several contentious issues.

That’s encouraging news. HB 1866 includes some solid ideas.

One is making the HCDA board a broader mix of appointees proposed by the governor, legislative leaders and the Honolulu City Council. There is also language to clarify how parties who can show standing will be able to request a contested case hearing on a disputed project approval.

Additionally, the bill would leave variance decisions up to the HCDA board, require separate hearings for the variances, and impose a 418-foot height limit in Kakaako’s mauka section.

The one troubling aspect of the bill is the provision allowing developers to pay cash in lieu of affordable housing requirements. Although this money would go to a state fund that could incentivize affordable projects, they may not all end up in Kakaako.

Still, the bill would also authorize HCDA to have first right of refusal to buy back the affordable units built in its districts. The authority should be prompted to do more of that to prevent that stock of housing from dissipating through resales.

Other bullet points:

» The Senate has pushed for a version of HB 1675 that would repeal the requirement for a minimum of 180 days and 1,080 student instructional hours in the school year.

This should not be enacted. The mandate for more instructional time should not be reversed before it even has a chance to have any effect on student achievement. Repeal would send precisely the wrong policy message at a juncture where, through the implementation of Common Core Standards and other educational reforms, the content of classroom instruction is about to become more challenging.

It’s the quality of classroom time that matters most, but enough hours must be alloted. Hawaii’s school year is short compared to other states.

» In all the budget dealmaking, counties must be accorded a larger share of the tourist tax than they now receive. It’s clear that the effects of the visitor industry on county infrastructure are intensifying, and their share of tax revenue needs to reflect that.

» HB 2371 presents some worthy adjustments in tax policy aimed at bringing relief to lower income residents. Among its strong points: Existing renter and food/excise-tax credits would be raised for inflation, and a state earned income tax credit would make the wages of the working poor go farther.

This week marks the final stretch for lawmakers who now find themselves struggling with more budgetary issues than they’d anticipated at the outset. A lot of work has been done to this point too much to let key bills get lost in the last round.

Lawmakers need to keep their eye on the ball.