Editorials
Wednesday, July 1, 1998

Cayetano should veto
automatic approvals

ONE of the recommendations of the Economic Revitalization Task Force convened by Governor Cayetano was that the state should set mandatory deadlines for action on all permits, licenses and other approvals. If no decision was made by the deadline, the application would be automatically approved. The Legislature accepted the task force recommendation, making exceptions for disasters or other emergencies or labor union strikes.

The measure is now awaiting the governor's signature to become law. Cayetano is being urged by environmentalists to veto it and by business leaders to sign it. In view of the governor's blanket endorsement of the task force recommendations, his approval of the bill seems assured.

The purpose of the bill is a laudable one, to force government agencies to act expeditiously on applications and thereby reduce the time businesses must spend waiting for approvals. Time is often of the essence in business, and faster action on permit applications could help attempts to stimulate Hawaii's weak economy. Environmentalists and other opponents know that delays work to their advantage by discouraging applicants.

Under the bill, each state agency and department that issues permits, approvals and licenses would be required to establish maximum time frames for action. There would not be a single time frame established for all agencies. This would allow each agency to establish realistic deadlines for its own processing.

The concept is sound. Every agency should strive to complete action on applications within a reasonable time. The problem is the result if they failed. Automatic approvals if the deadlines were not met could have unfortunate consequences.

This measure takes a simplistic approach. The solution is not the threat of automatic approvals, which would be the height of arbitrariness, but leadership from the governor, department heads and supervisors in finding ways to deal with obstructionist tactics and speed up the processing of applications.

Auto insurance

A state task force has provided new information that only 15 percent -- not the often-estimated one-third -- of Hawaii automobile drivers are lawbreakers because they do not have insurance. State Insurance Commissioner Rey Graulty calls the news "comforting," but the violations still are at an unacceptable level and need to be reduced drastically.

Graulty, who headed the task force, agrees and says he will seek ways to achieve such a reduction. The most plausible means probably would involve development of a computerized system allowing police to try matching the names of insured motorists with those of drivers pulled over; a non-match would indicate the driver is uninsured.

Graulty says the main drawback in developing a computerized system could be the expense of setting up and maintaining a data base. However, stiff fines for violating the mandatory-insurance law and increased enforcement could defray those costs.

The task force also plans to review a no-fault system used in Quebec in which auto insurance coverage is tied to the government's pre-paid health system. Such a system would be more promising in Hawaii than in other states because of Hawaii's extensive health-care plans, but health care is not universal as in Canada, and it could mean increased costs for employers.

Two options being considered by the task force should be quickly eliminated. One of those would be to make coverage optional. This would would only increase the number of uninsured drivers.

The other is the pay-at-the-pump system, in which insurance costs would be added to the price of gasoline. That would punish those who can least afford higher prices -- long-distance commuters -- and undermine the state's goal of encouraging residential development away from central Honolulu. It would also abandon the principle of adjusting insurance rates according to the insured's driving record.

Whatever option the task force recommends, it should be designed to stop the uninsured motorists from continuing to break the law at the expense of those who obey it.

Prison standards

IT'S one down and one to go as the state struggles to win release from a 1985 consent decree involving monitoring of conditions at the Oahu Community Correctional Center (OCCC) and the Women's Community Correctional Center (WCCC). The American Civil Liberties Union submitted an order releasing the WCCC in Kailua from the consent decree and it was signed by U.S. District Judge Samuel King last Friday.

The release means the court is satisfied that the state has fixed the problems at the women's prison that led to the imposition of monitoring -- primarily by building a new facility.

That leaves the OCCC still under the court decree, but there's hope that will be lifted, too. The state plans to transfer 600 male inmates to mainland prisons sometime this year, in addition to the 600 already there. ACLU attorney Dan Foley says that could result in the full release of the state from court-supervised monitoring by relieving overcrowding at OCCC. The facility is currently about 200 over the 890-inmate limit set by the court order.

However, mainland prison transfers are only a short-term solution to the overcrowding problem. A new prison must be built, and after initial reluctance Governor Cayetano has accepted that fact. He has vowed to select a site on the Big Island shortly for a 2,300-bed medium-security facility.

When that prison is completed -- it should take three or more years -- Hawaii will have gone far toward making its prison facilities adequate and acceptable by national standards.

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John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher

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Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor