Governor Vetoes 27 Bills

Governor Linda Lingle vetoed 27 more bills by today's bill action deadline. Among the bills she vetoed were the ban on opihi sales, ban on use of the Kaneohe Bay sandbar and several bad labor bills. Perhaps my favorite bill that ended up on the veto list was the application of the 6¢ bottle tax to 68oz. containers. Yeah! We can continue to buy the big bottles and not have to worry about paying the bottle tax on these items.... at least for this year. Never can tell what the Democrat party control legislature wants to do to us next year.

In all, a total of 32 bills were vetoed this year by Governor Lingle. The legislature could hold a special session to come back and override any or all of the 27 most recently vetoed bills. Reports indicate that this won't happen, as the ruling Democrats have stated they can come back in regular session next year to introduce new legislation to cover those items that got stricken today.

A total of 354 bills were passed on to the Governor's office by the legislature this year. Out of that the Governor either signed or let go without her signature, 318 of them. Several bills were "bad" such as those that increase taxes and the cost of living in Hawaii.

Nothing can be as bad this year as it was last year, when Governor Lingle let the general excise tax increase bill become law without her signature, which in turn the City and County of Honolulu under the leadership of Mayor Mufi Hannemann promptly used as a vehicle to fund their very expensive rail project. No bill in recent times will hurt our pocketbooks more than that one.

Perhaps later this year we may be able to elect leaders who are more sympathetic with taxpayer funds and our pocketbooks, and help us keep more of what we earn in our own pockets instead of recklessly increasing taxes and spending it on foolish projects such as rail transit.

I can only hope.