Last March, Gov. David Ige issued the first of many COVID-19 emergency proclamations — we’re now on No. 18 — that practically shut down tourism and forced private businesses large and small to adapt quickly to survive. Many didn’t.

So it seemed odd that it took more than a month after that March 4, 2020, proclamation for the state to marshal one of its own assets — the Hawaii Convention Center — to address the massive spike in unemployment claims that Ige’s actions caused.

The center’s cavernous rooms eventually were put to use by the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR), which expanded its call center to handle an unrelenting backlog of jobless claims filed by increasingly desperate residents.

But to get there, DLIR had to pay millions of dollars in rent to another state agency, the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA), which oversees the convention center.

HTA said it needed the money because Ige suspended its regular source of funding, a share of the transient accommodations tax. Besides, it gave DLIR a discount.

Well, OK. Still, it’s reasonable to ask: Why is HTA — a tourism agency in a state with a dearth of tourists and space sitting idle anyway — getting paid, when so many others aren’t? And why should there be any negotiating at all? It’s a state-owned facility, run by a state agency, urgently needed by the state during a state of emergency. Under such circumstances, shouldn’t the governor be able to commandeer the place immediately, without dickering between agencies and worrying about the bill?

Some lawmakers think so. House Bill 825, introduced by state Rep. Aaron Johanson, would give the governor just such authority. While the governor already has the power to assume control of state facilities in emergencies, the bill would clarify that he or she could do so “at no cost or requirement of compensation.”

“Rather than wasting precious time while a pandemic is raging, the governor shouldn’t have to be so consumed with whether or not to pay to use a school, whether or not we are going to pay a convention center,” Johanson said.

This makes sense, up to a point. In a crisis, the state’s bureaucracy should not be a hindrance, whether to unemployment assistance or mass vaccinations (assuming the governor wants to act quickly). But it’s facile to think that at the end of the day, there will be “no cost or requirement of compensation.”

The state still has to pay the utility bills, the cleaning staff, and whatever else it takes to keep its facilities running. It’s really a question of who pays, and when. And in a dire emergency, that’s a decision for the chief executive, not the HTA.