Hawaii Legislature already testing Gov. Josh Green’s agenda

The relationship between the state Legislature and new Gov. Josh Green’s administration is off to a bumpy start even before the 32nd legislative session begins Wednesday.

State senators roughed up Green’s nominee to lead the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands at a joint hearing of the Senate Ways and Means and Hawaiian Affairs committees last week, calling Ikaika Anderson and his staff unprepared to explain how they plan to spend $600 million in historic funding to help fulfill the promise of getting Hawaiian homes beneficiaries into housing.

Before 2022 even ended, House Speaker Scott Saiki and Senate President Ron Kouchi made it clear that there will be disagreements over details of many of Green’s ambitious goals, and Kouchi emphasized that the Senate will not be a rubber stamp when Green’s Cabinet appointees — including Anderson — come up for Senate confirmation.

Green’s agenda follows campaign promises embraced by candidates for nearly every office, including creating more affordable housing, expanding pre-K education and helping working families to keep residents from leaving for more affordable communities on the mainland.

But there is plenty of room to disagree on the details, including what to do with the state’s rainy day fund.

Green has proposed adding an additional $500 million to the fund, bringing the total to $1.9 billion by the end of the 2023 fiscal year when federal COVID-era funding disappears.

He’s also pledged using $100 million from the rainy day fund to address climate change.

So the relationship between Green and the Legislature will dictate how much progress overall can be accomplished on a variety of critical issues between Wednesday and May 4, when the session is scheduled to adjourn.

The executive and legislative branches are designed to be checks and balances on one another. But how contentious the relationship becomes this session could get in the way of real progress.

“There’s going to be a fair amount of conflict because the two institutions are supposed to be in conflict,” said political analyst Neal Milner. “That’s the Legislature’s job. But when you have a governor like Green, who’s very assertive and presents his positions well in public, that makes it more complex. This is going to be when they’re testing each other. Green is going to be active, and he’s going to be public.”

Colin Moore, director of the University of Hawaii’s Public Policy Center, said Green’s energy and ambitions are unlike his predecessor, former Gov. David Ige, which likely will mean a different approach toward Green from the Legislature.

“It’s going to be a different dynamic, that’s for sure,” Moore said. “They’re not going to give him a free pass. But he’s a newly elected, popular governor. So it doesn’t make sense for them to publicly oppose him.”

Legislative leaders have made it clear they plan to fulfill their obligation to question the administration’s ideas, highlighted by the rough treatment of Anderson, an experienced politician and former Honolulu Council chair.

Moore said the senators’ “grilling” of Anderson emphasized their role in approving Green’s Cabinet.

“They have a lot of power for those appointments, and they often like to give nominees a rough time,” he said. “They get some press with the message that you’re a no-nonsense legislator. How much is theater and how much is seriousness is sometimes hard to tell.”

Green is scheduled to lay out his goals Jan. 23 in his first State of the State address, with more details provided in his administrative bills.

That’s when five months of arm wrestling begins.

How effective Green will be includes how successful new Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke will be in steering his agenda through the Legislature.

Luke left the House at the end of the last session after 24 years that included her role in producing sometimes record levels of funding for popular programs. Her new portfolio includes spreading high-speed internet to rural and neighbor island communities and expanding pre-K access.

There will be no shortage of issues to squabble about, especially the plan to increase housing on Hawaiian home lands across the state.

“There’s going to be significant stirring of the pot on this issue,” Milner said. “You’re giving $600 million to an organization that has never been able to keep up with all of the demand. You have a new director and a healthy difference of opinion on what to do with all of this money. So in a sense you want conflict on this. You want the oversight to be tough. With all that money, you certainly want to set up some rules from the get-go.”

Other likely contentious topics include what a new Aloha Stadium should look like and how to resolve an ongoing contract dispute over who should market Hawaii tourism.

Milner is optimistic that the Legislature will make it easier for candidates to run for county, state and Office of Hawaiian Affairs offices by increasing public campaign financing, as long as candidates follow strict fundraising limits of individual donations of $5 or less.

But he believes the Legislature likely will not satisfy public demand for more sweeping ethics and campaign reforms following 2022’s federal guilty pleas from disgraced state Sen. J. Kalani English and state Rep. Ty J.K. Cullen on corruption and bribery charges at the start of the 2022 legislative session.

The last Legislature did ban campaign fundraising while in session. But, overall, Moore said the response to the outrage over English and Cullen was “pretty muted given the scale of the scandal.”

He called increased public campaign financing “a major change to our system of campaigns” that has led to improvements in states such as Arizona, Maine and Connecticut.

“But it’s not going to solve all our problems,” Moore said.

He believes there will be progress on popular issues including expanding pre-K education and affordable housing.

But Milner believes legalizing gambling and recreational cannabis will once again go nowhere, especially given lackluster support from Speaker Saiki and President Kouchi.

House Democrats said their priorities include more affordable housing, help for working families, more mental health resources and preparing the environment for climate change:

>> “Due to the length of time it takes to develop housing, supply-chain issues, and inflation, the House believes financing must be in place to keep the pipeline of affordable housing projects moving forward,” Democrats said. “In addition, the House Majority will continue to support programs addressing statewide homelessness.”

>> “The House Majority will continue to support working families by providing financial relief to those who are struggling to make ends meet in our state.”

>> Democratic representatives also want to “expedite treatment for those experiencing severe mental health crises, improve crisis response services, and address critical mental health workforce needs.”

>> And target state resources to “help to mitigate and adapt to climate change. By improving natural resource management, we can mitigate the impact of climate change and protect Hawai‘i’s residents.”

Priorities for Senate Democrats include:

>> Expanding affordable home rents and purchases; looking at ways for middle- income earners to buy homes; and developing workforce housing for residents in critical jobs.

>> Improving education by filling teacher vacancies and creating teacher retention programs, including dedicated affordable housing; and by working in partnership with local high schools and the University of Hawaii system; and supporting universal pre-K programs.

>> Developing nursing and other health care specialist programs statewide.

>> Establishing annual mental health checkups as a mandatory covered health insurance benefit.

>> Diversifying the economy by helping local farmers produce farm-to-school food.

>> Developing microgrid technology to provide reliable energy to rural communities and expanding aquaculture.

>> Exploring carbon offsets, carbon capture technology, a carbon tax and other ways to address sea level rise and other effects of climate change.

“Our hope is that by working collaboratively with the Senate Minority and the House of Representatives, we will make substantive progress on these important issues,” Senate Democrats said in a statement.