State Budget Approved by Conference Committee

More than 350 bills were put into conference committee after the House and Senate voted to “disagree” on all of them shortly after they passed the Second Crossover deadline earlier this month. Dozens of other bills have been “agreed” to by both houses (meaning amendments made in each house were amicable to the other). Those bills were voted in final reading in both the House and Senate, after which they went up to the Governor’s office for final approval.

Senator Slom was assigned to 236 conference committee bills. The Conference Committee process started last week and continues until tomorrow, April 26. Passage of most bills depended on the vote of the state budget, HB 200, which cleared conference committee last night (April 24).

April 23, 2013: Floor Action – Session Day #55: Senator Slom voted against SB 1193 SD1 HD1 on the Senate floor today. The bill repeals the GET exemption for goods sold to common or foreign carriers; ships, airplanes engaged in interstate or foreign commerce for consumption outside the state. The measure presents a tax increase for the cruse and airline industries.

Conference committees for the State Budget bill (HB 200), the Judiciary Budget (HB 197) and the budget for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (HB 222) passed their respective bills last night. Senator Slom voted in the affirmative on all 3 budget bills – he approved HB 200 with a “WR” vote despite the budget bills many shortcomings.

Top photo: Senator Slom was a member of the conference committee that voted on the State Budget bill.

Previous Days’ Reports

April 22, 2013: Floor Action – Session Day #54: The Senate advised and consented (23 to 2) to the nomination of Barry Mizuno to the University of Hawaii Board of Regents. Senators Slom and Ruderman were the 2 senators voting in opposition to the nominee. The Senate also confirmed several other individuals to a number of boards and commissions, passed several House Concurrent Resolutions and one bill (SB 883) on Final Reading. Senator Slom voted against SB 883 which funds pay raises for State Law Enforcement officers.

Senator Slom’s bill, SB 286 “Relating to Reapportionment” was deferred once again by the conference committee. Ditto for HB 622, which aims to protect journalists – deferred one more day.

About 2 dozen people showed up to protest against SB 1171 “Authorizes the phased review of certain projects by the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ State Historic Preservation Division to ensure consistency between state and federal law. Removes language that provided the Governor with the option to request the Hawaii Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to report in cases where an agency, officer, or other person is dissatisfied with a decision of the Hawaii Historic Places Review Board.” — For example if this bill was law today, the rail project could move ahead without a full archeological review for the entire route. Environmental and Hawaiian cultural groups oppose the bill. See photos below:

Photos on the SB 1171 protest taken by Noelani Bonifacio.

Senate Minority Alternative Budget Update

The following information relating to the Senate Minority Alternative Budget now takes into account the Senate Draft (SD1) of HB 200, which is now going through the conference committee process.

1. Current Budget Drafts – Biennial Appropriations for the Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015.

Table 1: 1. Current Budget Drafts – Biennial Appropriations for the Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015.

2. Graphical Representation of each Budget Draft

3. Potential Impact on Taxpayers

During the next two weeks, as part of the conference committee process, the House Finance committee and the Senate Ways and Means Committee will attempt to reconcile the differences of their respective State Operating Budget drafts. In addition to the budget, the current conference committee discussions also address some very important proposals. These important legislative proposals such as collective bargaining, early childhood education and mandatory contributions for the state employee’s health insurance fund, forebodes the average taxpayer in Hawai’i to evaluate how these measures impact their Hawai’i and the Hawai’i of future generations.

The following table highlights what the additional tax burden would be for each average family in Hawai’i under each respective budget draft:

This table highlights what will happen if the state would pay for the annual required contribution for the state employee’s health insurance fund, the additional payroll for collective bargaining, and the future long-term costs for early childhood education.  These payouts highlight what the potential fiscal burden would be for each family in Hawai’i. This comes to an additional $646 or $1,195 in taxes per family in order to sustain the operating expenditures under both the House and Senate budget draft.

It is clear that Hawaii’s current path is unsustainable. The only budget that does not rely on any future tax and fee increases, in order to sustain current operating expenditures, is the Senate Minority Alternative Budget. Even with adjustments for collective bargaining and early childhood education, the Senate Minority Alternative Budget leaves the state treasury with a general-fund surplus of $463.4 million. This surplus could be used to lower the tax burden for Hawaii’s’ struggling taxpayers with as much as $1,040 per family.

Notes

[1] Annual Required Contribution to pay off the unfunded liability for the state employee health insurance fund: $500 million.

[2] Additional estimated biennial costs for collective bargaining: $177 million.

[3] Estimated long term annual operating costs for early childhood education: $100 million.

House Bills Pass Out of the Senate

Feeding Pigeons May Become Illegal: More below….

Tuesday, April 9, 2013: Floor Action – Session Day #46: The second crossover voting day kicked off to a late start after a lengthy recess motioned the majority to meet in a closed door caucus session before they voted on floor amended bills and third reading bills placed on the “ordinary calendar”. Voting on the ordinary calendar bills started at 11:45am, nearly an hour and a half after the session officially started that morning (10:00 am).

The entire session can be viewed online at the Senate’s video archive:

http://olelo.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=34029

Third reading bills that Senator Slom voted “no” on:

HB 800 SD2: Emergency appropriation to the DBEDT from the energy security special fund.

HB 858 SD1: Hawaii growth initiative; HSDC

HB 914 SD2: Appropriation for the Obesity Prevention Council

HB 471 SD1: Starlight reserve; extension of advisory committee.

HB 1207 SD1: Dept. of Human Services compliance – affordable care act.

HB 619 SD1: Feral birds nuisance (bird poop bill)

HB 785 SD1: Hawaiian roll call – placing people on the roll without a vote.

HB 32 SD1: Ballot placement, arrangement of names.

HB 816 SD1: Collective bargaining salary increase – Senator Slom voted “no” on all salary increase bills for public union workers.

HB 680 SD1: Conveyance tax increase

HB 411 HD2: Emergency contraception – no conscience exemption.

HB 918 SD1: Employment training fund.

HB 1 SD2: Long term care – feasibility study

HB 321 SD2: Voter registration at absentee polling places.

HB 1481 SD2: Public financing of election campaigns

HB 115 SD2: U.H. repair & maintenance – special fund

HB 450 SD2: Hydrogen fueling stations

HB 634 SD2: Worker retention – requires new owners of firm to retain employees from previous owner. Nine senators including Slom voted against this bill.

HB 980 SD2: Bans use of electronic devices while operating a motor vehicle.

HB 487 SD2: livestock feed subsidy

HB 399 SD2 FA12: Comprehensive sex education (voted on the 47th day)

Action on other bills: Senator Slom voted in favor of the following bills.

HB 622 SD1: The latest draft of this bill turns the Hawaii’s exemplary shield law that protects journalists and other types of news gatherers into a less than desired for regulation that easily opens source material to law enforcement. Senator Slom voted “WR” on this to keep the bill alive in the hope that a new draft can lead to just dropping the sunset date and retaining the law as is. The photos above were taken at the Senate Judiciary hearing where some individuals supporting the shield law bill were grilled by the Senate Judiciary Committee Chair.

HB 668 SD2: Medical marijuana program – transfer of responsibilities, creation of a “revolving fund”; $35 medical marijuana registration fee. Slom voted WR.

Senator Slom also voted WR on the State Budget Bill (HB 200 SD1) which is undergoing further revisions as it winds through a series of conference committee hearings.

Both the Senate and House will have to agree or disagree on the amendments made to the bills that survived the last two crossovers. Those that each chamber agree on will go to “Final Reading” where they are voted on and passed up to the Governor for final action (sign into law, become law without signature, or vetoed). Those bills that the Senate and House don’t agree on the amended changes move on the conference committee where each side will try to find some common ground in order to amend the bill for final reading.

Conference Committees start in earnest this week and will go up to the last day before the week of final bill voting on April 30.

Senate Minority Alternative Budget Press Conference Video

Senator Sam Slom and Paul Harleman from the Senate Minority Research Office talk about the Senate Minority Alternative Budget. More details about the alternative budget at this link:
http://senateminority.wordpress.com/issues/budget/