I was impressed by state Rep. Della Au Belatti on the opening day of her first session in 2007, when she stood and excoriated then-House Speaker Calvin Say for being power-obsessed and weak on policy.
The fearless freshman aligned with reformers led by Reps. Scott Saiki and Sylvia Luke, and became a leader herself as they overthrew Say and ultimately installed Saiki as speaker.
Disappointingly, the reformers instituted few reforms, and Saiki became as ruthless as Say in quashing dissent, with Belatti as his majority leader and enforcer.
Now Belatti is out of leadership in the realignment after Luke’s elevation to lieutenant governor, and shows welcome signs she may be returning to her rebel roots.
In a speech on this year’s final day as fierce as the one on her first day, she helped lead a minirevolt against a $38 billion state budget concocted in secret by a handful of lawmakers, saying it “makes me physically sick to my stomach.”
She slammed fellow Democrats for cutting budgets of public schools and the University of Hawaii, “arguably the two most important government services that we have,” in a year of a record surplus, declaring, “This is absurd.”
Belatti also ripped a $200 million “slush fund” given Gov. Josh Green, presumably to cover items lawmakers neglected such as the Hawaii Tourism Authority, as “far worse than gut and replace.”
Five other Democrats voted against the budget, with several giving scathing speeches seldom heard from majority lawmakers fearing reprisal.
Rep. Amy Perruso decried safety net and education cuts in the context of a decision to put $500 million more in a rainy day fund that already has $900 million.
“It’s raining now, and without a budget that prioritizes the needs of working families in a year of extraordinary surplus, the storm is going to get worse,” she said.
Perruso also took a sideways shot at Senate Ways and Means Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz, a fellow Democrat in Central Oahu, for cutting homeless funding while “sneaking in” money for a controversial $200 million law enforcement training facility in Mililani.
“This is not a people’s budget; it’s a corporate budget, a developer’s budget, a builder’s budget,” she said, drawing a colleague’s demand for retraction. Heaven forbid anyone should offend the money lords whose campaign donations prop them all up.
Maui Rep. Elle Cochran, a former County Council member who, unlike legislators, was subject to the Sunshine Law, said: “Coming here has been really hard for me to work without sunshine.
“Things get lost in the shuffle, fall through the cracks, don’t get to see the light of day, get its due diligence, it’s due process. … I am asking this body if people here have the courage to change it.”
Rep. Jeanne Kapela described cuts to public school classrooms when the state is flush and students are struggling to recover from the pandemic as “immoral.”
As for Belatti, whether her renewed rebellion comes from principle or pique over losing a leadership post, it’s a role that suits her better.
We sorely need another wave of vocal dissidents unafraid to call out imperious leaders and fight for fair and open legislative dealings that put constituents first.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
