The Kaua’i delegation to the Legislature is united in opposition to legalized gambling in the state, and also against a proposal from Governor Ben Cayetano to move $213 million from the Hawai’i Hurricane Relief Fund into the state general fund.
The Kaua’i delegation to the Legislature is united in opposition to legalized gambling in the state, and also against a proposal from Governor Ben Cayetano to move $213 million from the Hawai’i Hurricane Relief Fund into the state general fund.
State Rep. Bertha Kawakami (D-Koloa), vice chairwoman of the House Finance Committee that conducted a public hearing Monday in Lihu’e on state budget issues, said she doesn’t think there are enough votes in the House to pass a gambling measure.
“I’ve always been against gambling,” she said. “I think the Kaua’i reps are all against. Once you’re against it, you’re really not going to change.”
Kawakami said gambling would the state other kinds of problems.
Rep. Ezra Kanoho (D-Lihu’e) said yesterday he remains “unequivocally opposed” to all but shipboard gambling.
Kawakami is opposed to any form of gambling. Whether it’s shipboard, lottery, track racing, “it’s the same thing. It’s still gambling,” she said. “I think we’d have a hard time passing” gambling legislation.
But Kawakami favors a statewide referendum asking registered voters if they favor or oppose gambling.
“You really want to know if people want it or not,” she said.
Rep. Mina Morita (D-north Kaua’i and east Maui) is nearly as adamant. She also is worried that debate about gambling will take time away from other important topics when the Legislature’s 2002 session opens next week.
“It’s a huge distraction,” she said.
About gambling as a form of fund-raising or budget-balancing, her message was clear: “It does nothing to diversify the economy. It’s not a panacea. I don’t support gaming or gambling,” she said.
Sen. Jonathan Chun (D-Kaua’i) remains against gambling and tapping the hurricane relief fund.
Sen. Avery Chumbley (D-north Kaua’i and east Maui) couldn’t be reached for comment.
The money committees of the Legislature, including the Senate Ways and Means Committee, have held hearings around the state seeking public opinion on how to balance the state budget for the next two years. The state projects a shortfall of $315 million in anticipated revenues over that period.
Governor Ben Cayetano favors moving the $213 million hurricane fund into the state general fund.
“Every place we went, they hit that,” Kawakami said of public opposition to the transfer of the hurricane fund. “They said, ‘don’t touch that money.’
“This being a vulnerable year, keep it in there,” said Kawakami of her own feeling on the issue.
But there will be much pressure applied to use that fund to help balance the budget, especially since even a 1 percent across-the-board cut of departmental budgets would cripple some of the smaller departments of state government, Kawakami noted.
“It’s just a quick fix. It’s not a sustaining solution,” Morita said.
She said that last year, the Legislature considered using interest generated by the fund to make emergency shelters more storm-proof, and to look at strategically putting certain utility wires underground.
“There may be no alternatives” but to use the fund to run state government, said Kanoho. “But we have to make sure we’ve first done enough to cut government.”
He said he would rather reserve the hurricane fund “for hurricane-related purposes.”
Staff writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) and mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net
