By Nancy Cook Lauer, West Hawaii Today | June 25, 2021
A bill Gov. David Ige is threatening to veto and one he signed are the “winners” of this year’s Rusty Scalpel award from two public-interest groups.
Both House Bill 862 and Senate Bill 1350 are titled “Relating to State Government,” and both were stripped of their original content and substituted with unrelated wording in the conference committee process, with no opportunity for public input.
“‘Gut and replace’ legislation violates the Hawaii State Constitution, reduces transparency, undermines accountability, and eliminates valuable public input throughout the legislative process,” Donna Oba, president of the League of Women Voters of Hawaii, said in a press release announcing the awards made by Common Cause and the League of Women Voters of Hawaii.
HB 862, the top winner of the dubious award, is on the list of bills being considered for veto that Ige released Monday. The bill, originally intended to abolish the office of aerospace development, was gutted and amended to eliminate the counties’ share of the transient accommodations tax on hotels and short-term rentals and replace it with a local-option increase. It also removes funding for the Hawaii Tourism Authority, among other changes.