Legislature will give Ige benefit of the veto doubt

Tuesday is veto day at the state Capitol. Any bill not vetoed by that day will become law, either with or without Gov. David Ige’s signature.

The only way to stop an Ige veto is for two-thirds of both the state House and Senate to override the veto.

But, House and Senate leaders have met and agreed that they are not going to touch any of Ige’s expected eight vetoes.

House Speaker Joe Souki confirmed that, saying he met with Senate President Ron Kouchi and they decided to sit out.

Still, there is a healthy amount of debate and gamesmanship involved in the when-and-what-to-override strategy.

If there was any bill that was ripe for an override it would have been House Bill 553, which allows graduate students to form a union to collectively bargain with the University of Hawaii.

Hawaii is one of the country’s strongest Democratic states and much of the Democrats’ political power comes from supporting and working with unions. Making more unions and more union members is supposed to be what Democrats do.

Supporters of the House bill say the estimated 6,000 grad assistants represent one of the biggest exploited labor classes in Hawaii.

"Having talked to what must be every single grad assistant, they feel they are being mistreated. They are the labor arm of the university and the professors are the management arm," said Rep. Isaac Choy, the Higher Education Committee chairman and the bill’s sponsor.

"The bill just says you have a right to collectively bargain. I cannot see a Democratic state such as ours even think of vetoing this," said Choy, who thinks he had the needed two-thirds majority of votes to block Ige’s expected veto.

Ige had said that while the grad assistants had "valid concerns," the UH Board of Regents could handle it by just working with the students.

As former House Speaker Calvin Say explained, there is more involved in a veto override than just the contents of a single bill.

If there are issues with a bill, just work it out and pass another one next year, counseled Say, who is clearly a member of the "cool head main thing" school of politics.

What is important, Say explained, is that the Legislature works with the governor. When asked about the record number of vetoes and veto overrides when Republican Linda Lingle was governor, Say explained "that was political."

"So it is political, but based on philosophy," said Say in an interview.

"You have to preserve the fifth floor (the governor’s office) for your party."

Say worried that something of a precedent may have been set with Gov. Neil Abercrombie being turned out of office after just one term, even though many House members supported his re-election.

"If you are going to be confrontational with the governor, it is better in the second term, because in the first term you want to see him re-elected," Say said.

Today Ige is sailing into a cluster of political and government storms, ranging from protesters blocking the construction of a $1.4 billion telescope to repairing a rapidly crumbling public hospital system and a still-slow economy.

So having supporters willing to give you another term just on principle must seem awfully sweet.

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