Misc. Ramblings

It's Friday! Lots of stuff to do. The legislature is winding down to its scheduled adjournment next week Thursday. As the deadline approaches, decisions are finally being made. Unfortunately, not all of them addressed our concerns.

Reviewing, understanding, and making wise decisions on the many bills legislators review every year is not an easy job. Indeed, it is probably impossible for any individual legislator to really know what each bill does. I don't know how many bills are introduced each year, but of those that are, about 300 become law. How can anyone understand even just the ones that pass is beyond me.

But part of the legislative process that can make things clearer is the hearing. Each bill must be come before each house of our two-part legislature at least three times. Usually, it ends up being considered more than that if it is referred to more than one committee for their review.

Each time a bill is heard is an opportunity for legislators to learn about what a bill does and, perhaps, some of the consequences or implications it may have. While many bills have no more than a minute or two to be heard, at least the opportunity exists to get a better understanding of a bill. Within those few minutes, is where we (citizens as a whole and our branch of government in particular) try to communicate to our representatives.

Unfortunately, sometimes, it seems like our message isn't getting through. Sometimes, we wonder if anyone even reads the testimony being submitted because there doesn't seem to be any acknowledgment by legislators. Yes, it's possible that the legislators have read the testimony and have made a policy decision contrary to our recommendation, but that is not always made clear by their actions. Thus, sometimes, leaving us with the feeling that no one is listening.

Hopefully, two examples will suffice. Our capital improvements budget took a hit when $48 million USD in funding for a new courthouse was deleted. Through no fault of our own, the cost of construction has skyrocketed. This, if you can even get anyone to work on your project because so much construction is going on right now. As I understand it, as soon as we became aware of the higher than originally projected costs, we notified the respective legislators involved with our budget. Yet, sometime much later, when the costs hit the papers, it seemed like at least some of the legislators were acting as if this was news to them and we, somehow, had either hoodwinked them or had tried to hide the true cost of the project (neither of which is true).

In amy case, this may mean the size of the yet to be built buildings will be substantially smaller than originally designed and will therefore mean fewer services to the people in that area. Further, it will mean the overcrowding in our existing courthouses will continue. While it is possible next year's legislature may provide some funding, who knows what may happen.

Secondly, a bill to consolidate the Executive and Judicial salary commissions (the independent bodies assigned to set salaries for Executive department directors and judges) along with legislative salaries, passed yesterday. However, we believe the bills (one to amend the state Constitution passed earlier, and the other to amend statutes) may be seriously flawed. In written testimony before five legislative committees and a letter to the conference committee, we noted these concerns. However, for whatever reason(s), the legislature chose to ignore some of our very serious and strong concerns (to be fair, they did address some, but not all) . The results of which may cloud the implementation of these bills. Sigh.

After 20 years of observing lawmakers, I have to wonder if there isn't a better way. YMMV. Insert disclaimer here.

Aloha!