Legislative activity heats up now, during the waning weeks of the session. The conference committee process has lawmakers from the House and Senate hashing out the details on contentious issues such as extending Oahu’s rail tax, privatizing public hospitals and establishing medical marijuana dispensaries. Here are the Honolulu Star-Advertiser editorial board’s opinions on some key issues:

» Rail tax: The Senate’s approach is preferable, because it would temporarily boost funding to build Oahu’s elevated rail-transit system but not permanently raise taxes.

The Senate bill would extend Oahu’s half-percent general excise tax surcharge for five years, while the House proposed halving the surcharge and eliminating the sunset date altogether. The intense debate about whether to extend the tax at all illustrates the importance to taxpayers of having a termination date enshrined in law, even if that date is five years later than originally envisioned. Lawmakers also must reduce the excessive 10 percent "skim" the state charges for administering the surtax. HART underestimated the cost of building rail transit in Oahu’s heated development market, and a limited extension of the surtax is necessary to finish the 20-mile system.

» Marijuana dispensaries: The House measure is better because it sets a limited framework for marijuana dispensaries in each county, intended to serve patients in Hawaii who need the drug for medical reasons. The Senate’s more expansive measure reads as if it is laying the groundwork for a much larger network of marijuana outlets in a state where recreational pot use is not even legal.

Hawaii is long overdue in making medical marijuana legally available for patients prescribed to use it. Lawmakers should limit their scope to serving that clientele, and not overreach.

» Ethanol: The Senate should prevail in its effort to abolish the state’s mandate that all transportation fuel in Hawaii be blended with ethanol, a biofuel made from sugarcane or corn. A House measure calls for further study; that’s unnecessary. Ample evidence exists from the nearly 10 years the mandate has been in place that it has failed to boost local agriculture or encourage local ethanol production, as intended. All the ethanol used in Hawaii is imported. Eliminate the mandate.

» Body cams: A pilot program that would equip about 100 Honolulu police officers with body cameras would benefit the public and the police, if similar programs in the continental United States are a guide.

The cameras’ presence may reduce use of excessive force by officers, and protects officers from false accusations by people they arrest. Video evidence works both ways, after all.

» Public hospitals: Labor-union objections notwithstanding, the time has come for Hawaii’s public hospitals to privatize, in order to cut costs and preserve health care services.

Lawmakers should approve a public-private partnership for the Maui region, which includes three hospitals, and hope that similar arrangements emerge for other struggling public hospitals.

» Underage smoking: Bringing conventional tobacco products, e-cigarettes and alcohol all under the same umbrella makes sense from a public-health perspective. That means raising the smoking age to 21 statewide, the same cutoff for buying alcohol.

The skyrocketing use of nicotine-based e-cigarettes by Hawaii youth makes passage an urgent matter.

» Sex trafficking: People forced into prostitution should be treated as victims, not criminals. Hawaii is overdue in improving laws to combat human trafficking.

» Transportation networks: Attempts to regulate Uber and Lyft like regular taxi companies should be scuttled. Instead, lawmakers should face the 21st-century realities of the technology-driven "sharing" economy and ease rules that impede conventional cabbies from competing against the upstarts.

» Kawela Bay: Lawmakers must salvage a plan to conserve 665 acres of undeveloped land near Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu’s North Shore, which will require House and Senate conferees to agree on funding sources.

Many other important issues also remain in play, such as homelessness action and education funding. Housing solutions for the visible "street people" problem cannot be put off any longer. And among many competing needs, lawmakers must devote appropriate resources to the state Department of Education and the University of Hawaii, which hold the keys to Hawaii’s long-term sustainability as a decent place to live. No other taxpayer investment equals the payoff of improving our public schools and colleges.