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Four freshman State House members review their first session, with Scott Saiki and Ed Case in studio and Quentin Kawananakoa and Colleen Meyer calling in from Maui, where they are attending the Republican Party convention. The sharpest divide runs along party lines on the budget: Kawananakoa says the new budget grows government spending by 12 percent and the Republicans voted against it unanimously; Case counters that unfunded mandates alone drove hundreds of millions in the general fund, and the real trajectory is downward. Saiki and Meyer both call the elimination of the food-and-housing tax credit for low-income residents a tax increase on the people who can least afford it, though the bill passed. All four oppose gambling and favor term limits, which no committee chair would schedule for a hearing. Case argues the high-three pension calculation compromises legislative independence by encouraging lawmakers near the end of their careers to angle for executive-branch appointments. Kawananakoa describes a $600 million Hawaiian Home Lands settlement that had a general excise tax increase attached after 11 p.m. in finance committee, with no prior public notice, as emblematic of conference committee abuse.
Transcript
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