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April 1988| December 1987 |
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February 1988 | April 1988 |
 From the President (Anne Lee)Speaking Out: Fear of Volunteering (Rhoda M. Dorsey)Water Quality Issue Survey (Kiyoko Nitz)Women's History MonthLobbying Needed for Initiative (Marian Wilkins)Join the Debate on AgricultureNew League Publication: Reapportionment in HawaiiFundraising UpdateInitiative Forum (Marian Wilkins)Natural Resources at the Legislature (Kiyoko Nitz)From the Local Leagues...And Other LWV/Hawaii News...What Kind of School Would I Like? (Marion Saunders) |
Lobbying Needed for InitiativeLast year the Senate passed an indirect initiative measure that had been introduced by Senator Mary-Jane McMurdo (S.B. 734). (Under indirect initiative, an initiative-proposed law will first be considered by the legislature, which can propose its own law to accompany the initiative proposal on the ballot.) No action was taken by the House because the bill had not yet been heard by the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Wayne Metcalf of Hilo. In October, 1987, in a letter responding to an inquiry by Common Cause/Hawaii, Representative Metcalf said, "... I have no plans to consider this matter during this forthcoming session." He gave as his reasons for opposing initiative: (1) Hawai'i has an open and flexible legislative decision-making process with an abundance of public hearings; (2) legislators generally introduce all legislative requests as a matter of course; and (3) initiative at its worst lends itself to emotionalism at the expense of objective consideration of the issues. LWV/Hawaii believes that citizens should have the power of direct legislation to affect the laws that govern them, and, toward this end, we support initiative. Leaguers who want to see an initiative bill passed should let Chairman Metcalf know, otherwise the outlook for this bill will be bleak. Marian Wilkins |
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