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Roth hosts four members of Hawaii's legislature to assess the 1996 session, which newspaper headlines called a "dud" and a "fiasco." In studio are Terry Tom, Milton Holt, and Cynthia Thielen; Speaker of the House Joe Souki joins by phone from Maui. Tom defends the session, citing probate reform, ice-drug sentencing, and ethics legislation that drew little media attention, and argues that the controversy over same-sex marriage demanded serious legislative time regardless of how it landed. Thielen, the panel's lone Republican, presents a House Republican report card grading the session with mostly F's and D's: no-fault auto insurance reform failed; the high-three pension benefit was untouched; and general-assistance payments to the disabled were cut to $217 a month. Holt agrees auto insurance reform was left unfinished and makes a live on-air offer to negotiate a deal with Souki, hinting a special session could even eliminate mandatory insurance entirely. Souki argues that 350 bills passed, that the media sensationalized a handful of failures, and that the session's $300 million deficit required difficult cuts. Callers challenge the guests on the power of committee chairs to bottle up legislation and on the human cost of welfare reductions.
Transcript
Read or download the full transcript (.txt). Speaker labels were assigned automatically and may contain errors.
Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
