Hawaii Needs Political Heroes To Step Up In 2016
These five big issues would be well-served by state leaders with the vision and guts to do right by citizens rather than special interests.
With the opening ceremony of the 2016 legislative session just 16 days away, the once-each-decade consideration of potential amendments to the Honolulu City Charter in full swing and countless other opportunities to affect public policy and the quality of life in Hawaii, the coming year holds promise for moving聽Hawaii forward in significant ways.
It’s also an election year, which usually means policy makers are loath to make any waves. But there are important decisions on the table in 2016 that shouldn’t be held hostage to political concerns.
Here are five key issues that will have ripples for years to come and define Hawaii’s leaders 鈥 for better or for worse.
Police Reform. Last year鈥檚 efforts at meaningful reform for law enforcement were really a series of single initiatives. There wasn鈥檛 a lot of unity around them as cohesive聽reform ideas, other than the legislative committees in which most of them met their end.
But interest in a training and standards board, an independent review board for officer-involved shootings and use of force, funding for body cameras and more transparency in police misconduct cases has had a year to germinate. A package of initiatives that complement and build off each other should be ready to bear fruit this spring.
As happened last year, the single biggest roadblock to reform may come in the form of Sen. Gil Keith-Agaran, chair of the . He needs to be part of a collaborative solution this year 鈥 not just the senator endorsed by the . It’s the senator, along with SHOPO, who too often stands in the way of measures that would be every bit as good for law enforcement as for the public it polices.
Progress in Housing. Legislators invested precious little last session in affordable housing, public housing maintenance and repair, and efforts to address homelessness.
The lack of investment made fiscal year 2016, which runs through the end of June, one in which Hawaii not only won鈥檛 keep up with the growing needs in each area, but in some will fall farther behind, adding complexity and scale to the overall challenge of putting proper roofs over the heads of all of 贬补飞补颈颈鈥檚 people.
With the better bond environment that Gov. David Ige鈥檚 administration has helped to create through careful financial management, near full employment across the state and the national economic recovery continuing to expand, Hawaii will have access to more resources this year to make significant commitments to housing.
If the state is to escape its self-declared homeless emergency and to meet the challenge of affordable housing, even as 贬补飞补颈颈鈥檚 real estate market continues to boom and housing prices rise, legislators must make peace with the fact that progress is going to cost real money. Avoiding that reality will only make the price tag a bit fatter the next year.
That doesn鈥檛 mean creative solutions aren鈥檛 welcome. The state鈥檚 current conversion of a large maintenance shed in Kakaako into a temporary shelter for as many as 240 people a year is a great idea. But even that basic, quick-turnaround renovation will cost an estimated $750,000.
On housing, we must be ready to put our money where our needs are, and stop kicking the can 鈥斅爓hich has been kicked so many times it doesn鈥檛 even resemble a can any more 鈥斅燿own a never-ending road.
Rail Crackdown. And that sentiment naturally brings us to the Honolulu rail project. We鈥檙e increasingly unconvinced additional money is needed because what鈥檚 already been committed has been so imprudently spent.
Only a little more than a year ago, this project was still being billed as 鈥渙n budget and on time.鈥 Budget overruns to the tune of $1.5 billion have been announced since then, which made the rate of budget bloat about $125 million a month over the course of 2015.
To paraphrase the old rich-guy joke, $100 million here, $100 million there, and pretty soon you鈥檙e talking real money. Only this isn鈥檛 a laughing matter.
The guideway for the 20-mile, 21-stop project is a little over 5 miles done. The Honolulu City Council still must consider an extension of the tax largely funding the project in its budget committee next week聽and as a full Council on Jan. 26.
Council Chair Ernie Martin and his colleagues must find a way to force greater accountability and more oversight on to the . Honolulu taxpayers simply cannot afford and must not be asked to pour a single additional year of general excise tax funds into a black hole of overruns from which meaningful financial management never seems to materialize and from which complete explanations never seem to emerge.
NextEra Decision. There have been聽many opportunities to review and discuss the $4.3 billion deal that Florida-based NextEra has put on the table to purchase Hawaiian Electric Industries. To say that the proposed buyout met with a lukewarm reception would be putting it mildly.
From Gov. Ige to 贬补飞补颈颈鈥檚 Consumer Advocate to community groups and state legislators, many in leadership roles publicly criticized the deal and doubted the heft or reliability of 85 pledges NextEra put in writing to help push the takeover through. Most prominently, Ige has questioned whether selling the century-old utility to a mainland company is in the best interests of Hawaii.
NextEra has countered that its commitment to improving Hawaii’s power generation and distribution system is genuine. It made that case in a series of public meetings across the islands as well as in 12 days of hearings before the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission as the year drew to a close. And many Hawaii business and labor organizations are backing a NextEra-HECO merger.
How best to move forward with energy is one of the biggest issues facing Hawaii, where the cost of electricity is three times that of the mainland. It affects virtually every aspect of life in the islands, including whether this state will continue to grow economically.
The PUC is expected to rule on the acquisition proposal by summer.聽Hawaii’s leaders, including the PUC, need to carefully consider the proposed merger from a number of angles and do what truly is in the best interests of the state over the very long term. A knee-jerk reaction against outsiders, as we saw emerge in the recent PUC hearings, is not helpful.
Hawaii’s residents and businesses desperately deserve thoughtful analysis and consideration of this proposal.
Public Integrity. 贬补飞补颈颈鈥檚 unfortunate grade of D+ in the latest national anti-corruption report card from the Center for Public Integrity was a major embarrassment that could have been worse had it not been for the fact that 46 other states scored even lower.
This is an area in which state legislators could chart real, meaningful progress in 2016 鈥斅爌rogress that wouldn鈥檛 cost taxpayers a dime, but that might result in real savings, as well as better governance.
Hawaii earned its poor grade for a range of shortcomings that could be easily addressed if only the political will could be mustered. Those include requiring better oversight of potential conflicts of interest by lawmakers and judges and more effective disclosure and regulation of lobbying and special interests who have business before the Legislature and administration.
Is there anyone in the Legislature who has the political courage to take this on and work it through? Hawaii very much needs a champion of ethics and integrity in this one-party dominated state, since citizens are blocked from taking up issues on their own because Hawaii lacks a statewide citizen initiative process.
Here’s hoping that political heroes will emerge in 2016. Even if it is an election year.
