August 2010
Stories:
2010 Legislature: Highlights & Accomplishments
Senator Kim on the Hot Seat
Changes for 2010 Election
Commentary
2010 Award Recipients
Sen. Hydrogen Investigation Final Report
Response to DBEDT Investigation
Photos: Active and Involved
Highlights and Accomplishments of the 2010 Legislative Session
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….this quote from Charles Dickens sums up the 60 legislative days of 2010. Both the Senate and House fiscal committees were challenged once again with the task of tackling the huge budget shortfall, this time $1.2 billion.
The Legislature considered both tax increases and budget cuts to craft a constitutionally balanced state budget. The final budget distributed the impact as widely as possible and kept vital services intact. It did not take any hotel tax money from the counties. Nor did it increase the general excise tax. It re-prioritizes state spending to maintain the most essential services in state government.
The following measures are highlights of the 2010 Session.
HB 2200 State Budget
- Provides $10.2 billion in overall state spending for the fiscal year 2010-2011
- $794 million in general fund spending cuts
- $58 million in tax increases
- $185 million in tax adjustments
- $275 million in delayed tax refunds
Education
SB 2124 Hurricane Relief Fund
- Legislature's commitment to end school furloughs
- $67 million appropriated from the Hurricane Relief Fund to restore instructional days to public schools
- Unexpended funds from each school year will lapse to the Hawaii hurricane relief fund
SB 2486 Minimum classroom instruction
- Phases in mandatory minimum number of student instructional time for public schools, excluding charter schools, for kindergarten to grade 12, beginning with the 2011-2012 school year
- Currently there is no minimum
- Corresponds to my annual survey where 85% of constituents felt the Legislature should mandate a minimum number of school days
- 2013-2015: Requires 180 classroom instructional days that includes 1,080 instructional hours
- 2015-2016: Department of Education to submit plan to Legislature to implement school year of 190 days that includes 1,140 student instructional hours
Accountability
The decision to furlough school employees raised issues of accountability of the Board of Education.
HB 2376 Appointed school board
- A state constitutional amendment will ask voters in November whether the state Board of Education should be appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the state Senate.
- Proposal brought about with the idea that the members of an appointed Board of Education would be held accountable by the Governor. If the electorate ratifies this constitutional amendment, the Legislature will need to enact legislation to implement the constitutional amendment.
Human Services
This session, many organizations feared loss of funding to services that would especially hit the most vulnerable and at-risk members of our community. A major accomplishment in these hard-pressed times was the preservation of senior safety net programs. The largest addition to the budget was the restoration of 450 state jobs in human services. Among the restored jobs were 128 in child and protective services, 121 in case management and 113 in MedQuest, which helps applicants get health care.
SB 2469 Social services
- $23.7 million from the Emergency and Budget Reserve Fund (Rainy Day Fund) was diverted to help many social service programs
- 39 programs were funded, including Healthy Start, a child abuse prevention program; Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services; YMCA of Honolulu for Weed and Seed program; Adult Friends for Youth; and Kupuna Care, which helps the elderly receive care at home instead of going to nursing homes
SB 2650 Eligibility offices
- Prevented the Director of the Department of Human Services from closing eligibility offices on the Neighbor Islands and instead, provides for a pilot project
- Department's new processing plan to consolidate the application process for public assistance, food stamps and other social service programs would have negatively impacted many lower-income people, the elderly, and those with limited English skills
Consumer Protection
HB 2169 Unemployment insurance
- Reduced an increase in unemployment taxes for businesses by about half. The average tax per employee would be $630, not $1,070, as expected
- Average tax per employee was set to increase because of rising unemployment and the depletion of the unemployment trust fund
copyright © 2010 donnakim.com. All rights reserved.
