Gov. George Ariyoshi yesterday signed into law a bill that makes the state functional plans guidelines for future growth.

The Legislature this year approved 10 of the 12 functional plans to carry out the goals of the 1978 state General Plan.

The state Senate had held up passage of the 12 functional plans for nearly five years saying they should not be considered as legal mandates.

The functional plans covering agriculture and education didn’t win lawmakers’ approval this year. Approved were plans covering health, water resources, recreation, conservation lands, historic preservation, tourism, energy, housing, transportation and higher education.

Other bills signed into law yesterday are:

» Act 235, which requires state and county governments to pay their bills quickly. …

» Act 238, which strengthens the abilities of the state … to handle gasoline shortages.

» Act 239, which creates guidelines for the activities of self-service storage facilities. …

» Act 241, which establishes a chiropractic peer review committee and exempts committee members from liability for their actions. …

» Act 245, which requires a person to advertise and publicly file his change of name before it can go into effect.

» Act 246, which raises the amount of a contractor’s bond for government construction projects from 50 to 100 percent of the contract price.

» Act 255, which prohibits individuals from taking over a Hawaii bank until the state bank examiner has studied the proposed acquisition and had a chance to make recommendations to federal officials.

» Act 256, which continues the job-sharing program in the public library system for another two years.

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Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.