The drama and uncertainty
over efforts to amend and override Gov. David Ige’s record number of vetoes came to an end Thursday
after the state House and Senate voted unanimously to amend three bills and essentially kill a fourth one to address Ige’s initial concerns.
Ige now has until July 22 — or
10 working days after Thursday’s moves by the Legislature — to sign off on amendments to two bills the governor originally vetoed and the Legislature changed.
“The governor must sign the bills,” his spokeswoman Jodi Leong told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “They will not become law without his signature.”
If he does not sign the amended bills, they are dead.
Ige originally vetoed House Bill 54 because he said it improperly used COVID-19-related American Rescue Plan Act federal funds to cover fixed costs and replenish the state’s rainy-day fund.
On Thursday the House and
Senate then voted unanimously
to amend HB 54, and Ige signed the updated version nearly immediately. Both chambers then went back into session and voted to override Ige’s veto of HB 53, which essentially made the bill moot because it was linked to the original version of HB 54 that Ige vetoed.
Leong said the original versions of the two bills that Ige vetoed were “were interdependent.”
Ige had announced his intention to veto 28 bills and ended up vetoing 26 of them by Tuesday’s deadline — both records for his two terms in office.
Legislators in both chambers then took the unusual step Tuesday of overriding five of Ige’s vetoes by two-thirds majorities and a sixth — HB 53 — unanimously Thursday. The last time Ige had even one of his vetoes overridden occurred in 2016.
All Democratic and Republican members of the House and Senate who were present Thursday were unanimous in their votes.
Before Ige’s signature of HB 54, state Rep. Sylvia Luke, House Finance Committee chairwoman, called it “an
unusual move” to amend any bill that a governor had vetoed. Like Ige, a Democrat, both the House and Senate are overwhelmingly controlled by Democrats.
The amended bills
now going to Ige’s desk
for reconsideration are:
>> HB 1299, which abolishes certain special funds and trust funds and deposits the balances into the general fund. Ige vetoed the measure, saying parts of it were unconstitutional. An amended version of the bill reinstates certain funds, including the Milk Control Special Fund, which was set up to administer the Milk Control Act, a law meant to safeguard the local diary industry from market fluctuations. Luke said Thursday that the amended bill eliminates about 10% of “special or nongeneral funds,” and the Milk Control Special Fund will be taken up next session or during a potential special session before then.
>> SB 589, which makes structural changes to the University of Hawaii Cancer Center. An amended version addresses Ige’s concerns about jeopardizing existing contracts and the method of appointing a director.
