House lawmakers gave preliminary approval Tuesday to bills that scale back the role of the Hawaii State Auditor in overseeing the Honolulu rail project, which is now the subject of a federal investigation.
House and Senate lawmakers also approved hundreds of other measures as the midpoint of this year’s legislative session approaches. Among those still alive are bills that would reduce state income taxes for Hawaii’s poorest residents, increase the state general excise tax to 4.5 percent to fund public education, and provide special housing for public school teachers. Lawmakers are also considering raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2023. The push for a so-called living wage in
Hawaii echoes a broader
national campaign financed by labor groups called the Fight for $15.
Thursday is the deadline for bills that originated in the House to cross over to the Senate and vice versa, which prompted a flurry of floor votes in both chambers this week.
The House on Tuesday approved bills to reduce the role of the state auditor in monitoring the rail project, essentially backing away from provisions that were written into law in 2017 when the Legislature approved a $2.4 billion financial bailout of rail.
Since then the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation has confirmed it was served with three
federal grand jury subpoenas seeking tens of thousands of documents in connection with a federal investigation that involves the FBI and the Honolulu office of the U.S. attorney.
House Bill 118 Opens in a new tab would eliminate a requirement that the state auditor conduct an “annual review” of documents and the activities of HART to include invoices, contracts and progress reports for rail. Those reports were to be submitted to state lawmakers in an effort to ensure state funds for rail are spent properly.
House Finance Committee Chairwoman Sylvia Luke said Auditor Les Kondo has had trouble getting certain records from HART, and “now he is concerned that with the federal investigation, that he will have additional difficulty in getting complete records from both HART and the city.”
“He himself has said not only is he running into some difficulties, but he doesn’t want to be providing a report to the Legislature that is not complete, and so he is the one who has come forward” and asked that the annual audit requirement be canceled, she said.
That did not sit well with House Republican Minority Leader Gene Ward, who said the bill “basically surrenders.” He proposed a floor amendment to HB 118 to delay the annual auditor’s reports on rail until 2025.
“Let’s take time out, let’s not cancel the audit,” Ward said. “We fought tooth and nail on this floor to make sure there was a very strong audit so the rail didn’t go over budget at the time.”
Ward’s floor amendment failed on a voice vote, and the House unanimously approved HB 118 to scrap the annual audit requirement. The Senate is considering a similar measure in Senate Bill 656 Opens in a new tab and is poised to vote on it Thursday.
House lawmakers also advanced a bill to decriminalize the possession of small quantities of marijuana, and on Tuesday amended House Bill 1383 Opens in a new tab on the floor to make possession of less than three grams of marijuana punishable with a fine. Possession of larger quantities would continue to be treated as a crime.
“The whole idea behind the bill is that you’re not going to treat people as criminals and ruin their lives for something as small as possessing a little bit of marijuana,” said House Judiciary Chairman Chris Lee in an interview.
That bill also creates a process for expungement of old convictions for small amounts of marijuana, and the House is expected to vote on that measure Thursday.
Lawmakers also advanced measures to offset Hawaii’s high cost of living, a perennial issue at the Legislature.
House Bill 1190 Opens in a new tab, introduced by Rep. Aaron
Johanson (D, Fort Shafter-
Moanalua Gardens-Alia-
manu), would eliminate the state income tax liability for residents living at or below the poverty line. Hawaii is one of 15 states that impose an income tax on people within that tax bracket, while most states either provide a refund or require no payment, according to the bill.
“Measures like this will provide much-needed financial relief to those at the bottom of our state’s pay scale who are at the greatest risk of falling victim to rising prices for food, housing, medicine and other basic necessities,” said Rep. Amy Perruso (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore-Poamoho), speaking on the House floor in support of the bill.
The Senate advanced a bill that would increase the minimum wage incrementally to $15 an hour beginning in 2023. Senate Bill 789 Opens in a new tab would also provide a tax credit for certain small businesses to offset the cost of wage hikes. The current minimum wage is set at $10.10 an hour.
Gov. David Ige has signaled his support for a higher minimum wage, and prior to this legislative session, the Hawaii Democratic Party and the Honolulu City Council approved resolutions that support a living wage. However, the push to boost the minimum wage has received pushback from business interests.
Lawmakers also advanced bills that would subsidize housing for teachers in an effort to attract and retain more teachers in Hawaii’s public schools. Senate Bill 114 Opens in a new tab and Senate Bill 12 Opens in a new tab would provide housing subsidy vouchers to teachers employed by the Department of Education who teach in hard-to-fill schools. The housing vouchers could be used to cover rent or mortgage payments.
Senate Bill 387 Opens in a new tab would authorize the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp. to assist in developing teacher housing projects.
While lawmakers are looking at ways to ease the financial burden on poor and working-class residents, they also advanced a bill that would increase the general excise tax by 0.5 percent. The GET surcharge is considered regressive by tax experts — applied uniformly, it takes a larger percentage of income from poorer residents. The increased tax revenue under Senate Bill 1474 Opens in a new tab would be deposited into special funds set up to support public education.
The Senate also advanced a “sanctuary state” bill that would instruct state and county law enforcement agencies not to cooperate in certain circumstances with federal immigration authorities.
