Key players assess the 2010 Legislature
Adrienne LaFrance
Jun 9, 2010

Every winter, Honolulu Weekly anticipates the coming legislative session with the fervor of football fans. We discuss line-ups, make predictions and revisit the play-by-play of the previous session’s wildest victories and ugliest defeats. The session itself is a whirlwind of hearings, thick documents, rallies, impassioned speeches and crying foul. But before we know it, the clock runs out. No matter how attentive our legislative focus has been, there are always key plays missed, a feeling of not fully understanding exactly how the game went the way it did. And who better to ask than the players?

It’s an exercise we go through after each legislative session. We e-mailed every state senator and representative the same five questions, almost all of which were questions we asked last year, too. One addition: What percentage of State lawmakers do you believe would have made all of the same decisions this session, were it not an election year? Did we expect anyone to definitively know the answer? Of course not. But we did see the question itself as a kind of bellwether for, ahem, B.S. and an opportunity to assess the manner in which lawmakers answer questions about the some of the more slippery elements of life in politics. Not every lawmaker took the time to respond at all–some were too busy blast e-mailing us their campaign newsletters–and we’re enormously grateful to those who did. We reporters like to remind politicians that we’re really on the same team: looking out for the public’s best interest. We hope these excerpts offer you a better understanding of those who are making decisions on all of our behalves, so that we may all be ready next year when the games begin again.

What was your biggest accomplishment this session?

“Although it was a team effort that I can’t take sole credit for, I would have to say that getting the $48 million in construction funding for the new UH West Oahu in the state budget was definitely the highlight of the session. This is huge for the people of West Oahu who have been waiting over 30 years for the campus to become a reality.”

–Sen. Mike Gabbard (D-19th District)

What was the biggest disappointment of the session and how might a similar disappointment be prevented in the future?

“Probably the biggest disappointment of the session is that we weren’t able to get HB 2643–the PACE bill–passed. This was a very good bill that would have set up a properly accessed clean energy program, an idea that has been implemented in 18 other states. In a nutshell, it would allow homeowners and small businesses to borrow in order to purchase renewable energy and energy efficiency systems and pay back the loan on their property tax bill. As you might know one of the impediments right now for people to put PV on their roofs or install improved insulation is the upfront costs. What’s great about this concept is that it takes the whole discussion of “renewable energy” out of the abstract and makes it real for people.”

–Sen. Mike Gabbard (D-19th District)

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Please contact me if I can help you. My phone is 586-6830 and e-mail is sengabbard@capitol.hawaii.gov. Mahalo for the privilege of serving you!