In the time before COVID-19, back in January, Hawaii’s government leaders were looking at what they called “a historic collaboration.”

Gov. David Ige announced, “House Speaker Scott K. Saiki, Senate President Ronald D. Kouchi along with House and Senate and community leaders and I will propose a joint package of bills today to benefit Hawaii’s working families. The bills focus on critical economic issues including affordable housing, child care, and reducing poverty to make life better for our residents.”

It was a load of feel-good legislation, fueled by a whopping state surplus and a desire to use the money to do good across the state.

On a political level, the announcement would cancel the still-lingering bad feelings and mistrust between Ige and legislative leaders who publicly endorsed Ige’s 2018 Democratic primary opponent, former Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa.

Nothing says “We don’t love you” like a press release saying somebody else should have your job.

But instead of a coalition, there was a historic collapse. After the coronavirus struck, Ige was forced to shut down tourism to stop the raging infections. Hawaii’s economy just stopped, unemployment soared and Hawaii’s budget surplus became an unimagined deficit.

Little noticed in the midst of the economic disaster was a profound change in Hawaii’s government.

The locus of political power tilted away from the Governor’s Office, one of the most powerful in America, to the state Legislature — almost solidly Democratic, but littered with clusters of ambitious and scheming factions.

On April 21 workers corralled by Speaker of the House Scott Saiki turned up at the state convention center to process the huge backlog of unemployment claims triggered by the jobless claims from workers idled by COVID-19.

“I’ve got to hand it to my colleagues and the legislators because they actually took it on. They were the ones who mustered all the community support and put this thing together,” said then-state Labor Director Scott Murakami.

The Ige administration, which at first adamantly refused legislative help, was forced to bend. According to a report in MidWeek, state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim said early on the Senate offered 40 staff members to help process claims “and they (the Ige administration) turned us down.” The Legislature, however, would force its will on the administration.

In an interview last week, state Rep. Sylvia Luke, House Finance chairwoman, said the Legislature is just trying to “fill the void left by the administration.”

Still, problems increase as the Ige administration struggles to manage its responsibilities to run the departments.

As of press time, the federal government was questioning the state unilaterally shutting the federal H-3 Freeway to use as a COVID-19 test site after being warned not to do so. Two much-criticized state executives — Health Director Bruce Anderson and Public Safety Director Nolan Espinda — both sent in their resignations as their departments are engulfed in questions of competence. Espinda and Anderson both said they were retiring and Ige said he wasn’t firing them.

Still it is clear, whether Ige wants it or not, that the Legislature has gone from merely setting policy to actively assuming responsibility — and is a hands-on part of running the state government.