By Senator Sam Slom, from the Waialae-Kahala NHB #3 Report
Governor Linda Lingle vetoed 32 bills by the July 6 deadline that would adversely impact Hawaii residents and businesses. The bills were vetoed due to various factors including significant negative impacts on the public, legal or constitutional concerns, potential unintended consequences, or technical flaws in the legislation. Many of the vetoed bills are those that I voted against while they were in the legislature. I would have voted to sustain the Governor’s veto on many of these bills had the legislature met for a special veto override session.
Fortunately for the Governor and the State, the legislature did not go into special session for the purpose of veto overrides for the first time since Governor Lingle took office in 2002. The State House majority leadership decided to not call back their members for a special session as it is an election year and that they did not have the votes to override a veto of HB 444 “Relating to Civil Unions” (passed in the House by a 31 to 20 margin; 3 votes short of making it veto proof).
The Senate majority would have called the Senate into special session to override all of the Governor’s vetoes had the House done the same. Instead, the vetoed bills are dead this year. A total of 212 bills became law of which a majority were signed by the Governor. 26 bills became law without her signature and 11 others became law after the legislature overrode the first group of Governor Lingle’s vetoes on the last day of the regular session April 29.
On June 21, the Governor submitted to the Legislature a list of 39 bills she was considering vetoing.
Of the 39 bills on the Governor’s potential veto list, three bills had been vetoed earlier. SB2001 would have retroactively eliminated previously promised high technology investment tax credits. HB1907 would have resulted in tax increases totaling more than $140 million over the next five years and discouraged charitable contributions. HB415 would have required an expensive and unnecessary audit of the Department of Public Safety. The House and Senate majority leadership recently sent out a letter of request to the State Auditor to conduct the audit even though HB 415 was vetoed.
The Governor’s statements of objections regarding the bills she vetoed can be found on her website at: www.hawaii.gov/gov/leg/2010-legislative-session. The full list of all bills signed and vetoed by the Governor in 2010 is also posted on the Governor’s website as well as on the State Legislature’s site at http://capitol.hawaii.gov. PDF lists of Bills that became law and the veto list can also be found at the Legislative Reference Bureau’s website at: http://hawaii.gov/lrb/reports/bill.html.
