Even in the quiet, before the closing-day speeches in the first days of May, this year’s state Legislature is significant. The promise is that they will be back for a special session.
The Legislature last convened a special session in 2017 to address rail project funding. Now the new dates for the special session being considered are August, September or November.
Legislative leaders think by then more information could be available. Even if that gives local politicians more time, though, it does not give them more money to spend on restoring Trump administration and GOP budget cuts.
Former House Speaker Scott Saiki, who is now working as the state’s acting deputy insurance commissioner, says, ”I continue to believe that the Legislature should not meet year-round. It’s important for legislators to have time to be away from the state Capitol and to instead be in their communities and working with real people on real issues.”
The fiscal worry extends to local decisions. The Star-Advertiser reported last week that the University of Hawaii vice president for the institution’s budget, Kalbert Young, says the state’s latest version of the UH budget includes a series of cuts.
Young, UH vice president for budget and finance and chief financial officer, said those included reductions in funding for the John A. Burns School of Medicine and the UH Cancer Center.
“Young warned that federal funding for biomedical research is expected to decline under the new federal administration,” the Star-Advertiser reported.
“First, nothing in the legislative budget request is to address any issues related to the federal supplantation of funds, so that worry has not yet been addressed,” Young said. “There will come a time when a question will be put to the university and the state about how those services and programs will continue if they are to continue without federal funds.”
The waves of uncertainty are coming because of the Republican and Donald Trump revolution blooming in Washington, D.C. If nothing else, it means Hawaii’s relationship with the federal government will change. And yes, change is expected to be expensive.
In politics, as in most things, uncertainty means the high probability of more money being needed. The state Legislature expects the cash to flow — if for no other reason than the extra money that legislators will be getting that includes take-home pay.
Yes, pay increases recommended by a state salary commission are coming to legislators, judges and others in the top levels of state government.
The proposed pay package includes a 32% raise for state lawmakers, increasing their salaries from $74,160 today to $97,896 starting Jan. 1, 2027. After that, lawmakers are expected to get 4% pay increases in each of the following two years and another 8% pay increase on Jan. 1, 2030, for a total 48% pay increase over six years.
The process for raises is fashioned to give legislators the ability to say they didn’t vote for a pay raise. The law is written to say the salary commission recommends the increases, and unless the Legislature votes against them, the raises become law.
Legislators would have to actually vote to kill the raises, not pass them. Legislators get both the increase plus the deniability that they voted for a raise.
To sum it up, you will be getting a lot more governing, or at least more meetings, speeches and promises.
It will be up to voters to decide if all that adds up to honest action and solutions.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com
