Governor Linda Lingle vetoed 41 of the 52 bills she had on her veto list on Tuesday, July 8. The Hawaii State Legislature quickly met in special session the same day to override 13 of the 41 bill vetoes. The Senate overrode 37 of the 41 vetoes. The House only did 13, negating 24 of the bills overridden in the Senate.

I voted to sustain several of the vetoed bills including the following:

HB 2250: This bill will reregulate inter-island airlines. This is a very bad bill that kills the free market in inter-island air travel, and will regulate fares while keeping competition out. This is a reaction to the recent closure of Aloha Airlines and smacks of protectionism for the dominant incumbent air carrier, Hawaiian Airlines. I called out the four legislators who took complimentary trips on Hawaiian to the Philippines earlier this year to recuse themselves from voting on this bill. None did. In the end the State has no say about airline regulation unless the Federal Government allows re-regulation of airlines to happen. The bill veto override passed the Senate by a 19 to 3 vote.

HB 2843: This bill will significantly add to the cost of living in Hawaii as a new fee (tax) will be applied to all freight coming into the state. The fees will be applied on a perpound basis on all goods brought in. This tax will supposedly protect the state from "invasive species." The proper way to protect the state from outside vermin is to allocate the funds through the normal budgetary process. Be prepared to pay even more for everything you consume.

SB 156: This bill sets a bad precedent as it will allow for permanent absentee voting without any safety checks.

SB 2262: This bill extends the sunset date of the Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Association (VEBA) trust fund program to 2010. The state already has another program called the EUTF that has been successfully run for several years. VEBA will marginalize the EUTF program by allowing unions such as the HSTA to dump their least healthy employees to the EUTF while retaining their most healthy employees in the VEBA program.

SB 2843: This bill implements a $5,000 annual fee to electronics manufacturers and mandates that they implement recycling programs. Nearly everything pushed by environmentalists negatively impacts consumers in the pocketbook. You can rest assured that the cost for this program will be passed on by the manufacturers to both retailers and consumers.

SB 2878: This bill will establish "an early learning (education) system in the state". This will certainly extend the reach of the HSTA and the state into the "education" of children younger than kindergarten age.

A bill-by-bill wrap-up of the Special Session can be found at the State Legislature's website: www.capitol.hawaii.gov.