Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 8, 1 August 2012 — 2012 LEGISLATIVE REVIEW As a crucial veto deadline passes, we examine the fate of 9 measures impacting Hawaiians [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

2012 LEGISLATIVE REVIEW As a crucial veto deadline passes, we examine the fate of 9 measures impacting Hawaiians

By Sterling Wong The 2012 legislative session, whose activities officially ended on July 10 with the governor vetoing 13 bills, will be remembered by Native Hawaiians for the historic enactment of a law

approving the transter of $200 million in state lands at Kaka'ako Makai to OHA. The land transfer settles the state's debt to OHA for past revenues generated from

the Puhlie Land Trust. The settlement, however, was not the only success for OHA and Native Hawaiians at the Capitol this year. For example, as a result of a bill in our 2012 legislative package, Hawaiian language immersion students will take federally required assessments that are more fair and accurate than the tests they took last year. Moreover, Native Hawaiians will also benefit from a number of other bills that were supported by OHA and approved by the Legislature, including a measure improving the state's early childhood education system and a set of bills reforming Hawai'i's criminal justice system. In addition, OHA successfully opposed a series of bills that would have rolled back protections to the state's natural and cultural resources and Native Hawaiian practices. Below is a review of major bills that impacted Native Hawaiians during this year's session. 0HA 2012 LEGISLATIVE PACKAGE SCR 143 » Description: Senate Concurrent Resolution 143 requests that the governor direct all state agencies to fully comply with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Directive No. 15, the federal guideline governing racial and ethnic data collection. These federal guidelines require state agencies to plaee data for Native Hawaiians in the "Native Hawaiian or Other Paeihe Islander" category. The resolution also calls for this data to be made accessible to the puhlie, whieh would help OHA and others to better understand the depth of

Native Hawaiian health, socioeconomic, housing, employment and other issues. » Result: SCR 143 was formally adopted. HB 2875 » Description: The Hawaiian language community has voiced strong concerns about the translated Hawai'i State Assessment used for Hawaiian Language Immersion Program (HLIP) students because of numerous problems relating to translated tests, including cultural and translation bias, translation inaccuracies, and terminology inconsistencies. House Bill 2875, whieh was largely based on a similar bill proposed by OH A, would have required assessments for third- through sixth-grade HLIP students to be developed originally in the Hawaiian language. » Result: Largely unwarranted concerns about funding prevented the bill from being formally enacted. However, the state Department of Education has committed to a three-part plan to do essentially what HB 2875 would have required. First, the state DOE will formally request that the U.S. Department of Education waive the federal assessment requirement for Hawaiian immersion students for four years. The state DOE and Hawaiian language stakeholders will then use the four-year waiver period to develop a non-translated Hawaiian language assessment for Hawaiian immersion students in grades three through six, as called for in HB 2875. Because it is unclear whether the federal DOE will approve the waiver, the state DOE and Hawaiian language stakeholders are currently reviewing and editing the existing Hawaiian translated assessment for the 2012-2013 school year in an attempt to mitigate potential harm to the students while a long-term solution is being developed. HB 2685 » Description: HB 2685 was based on a similar concept proposed by OHA: raising the asset limits for puhlie assistance programs, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid and food stamps. Asset limits encourage low-ineome families to get rid of assets instead of accumulating

them, whieh makes it difficult for those families to escape poverty and heeome self-sufficient. OHAproposed this concept because it furthers our strategic priority of improving the eeonomie self-sufficiency of Native Hawaiians, who have the highest rate of poverty in the state at 12 percent. » Result: HB 2685 was amended to require the Department of Human Services to conduct a study on the impacts of changing the asset limits. While the bill was widely supported, it died in the llth hour due to a technical error during the conference committee vote. Nevertheless, DHS is committed to conducting the study and is currently convening a task force on the issue. HB 1984 » Description: The Hawaiian language eommunity has long recognized February as 'Ōlelo Hawai'i Month. HB 1984, whieh was included in OHA's 2012 legislative package, would have made this recognition formal by placing it in statute. HB 1984 was also noteworthy because it was written in both Hawaiian and English. If enacted, it would have been the first law published in Hawaiian since a 1943 law stopped requiring laws to be printed in both Hawaiian and English. » Result: Govemor Abercrombie vetoed HB 1 984 because the hnal version of the bill included an amendment requiring all state letterheads, documents and symbols to include the correct spelling of Hawaiian words, including the accurate usage of Hawaiian diacritical markings. The govemor said that the state would not have been able to fully implement this provision by the bill's Jan. 1, 20 13, deadline because otherlaws wouldalso have to be changed. However, he committed to issuing a gubernatorial proclamation declaring February as 'Ōlelo Hawai'i Month and to creating a working group to analyze the best way to implement the accurate usage of the Hawaiian language in state business. N0N-0HA LEGISLATIVE PACKAGE BILLS EDUCATION SB 2545 Status: Enacted as Act 178 OHA posilion: Support » Description: Act 178 establishes a state office and an advisory board focused on improving the state's education system for children ages five and under. OHA supported this bill because improving the state's early learning system is critical to ensuring that Native Hawaiian keiki are prepared developmentally and socially to succeed in school. The act's importance is highlighted by reports indicating that the number of Native Hawaiian children ages five and under is expected

G0VERNANCE To restore pono and ea, Native Hawaiians will achieve self-gover-nanee, after whieh the assets of OHAwillhe transferred to the new governing entity.

www.oha.org/kwo | kwo@OHA.org NATIVE HAWAIIAN » NEWS | FEATURES | EVENTS

LEGISLATURE

to more than double between 2000 and 2050, from 24,677 to 65,870. NATURAL ANŪ CULTURAL RES0URCES SB 755 Status: Passed both chambers but died in conference OHA Position: Oppose » Description: Senate Bill 755 exemplified a number of bills introduced in the 2012 legislative session that, in the interest of promoting eeonomie development, sought to exempt certain government or private projects from various state and county review or permitting requirements. OHA opposed many of these bills in order to protect existing procedures that allow for a thorough review of the impacts these projects would have on the state's natural and cultural resources. SB 755 Senate Draft 2 House Draft 3 would have given certain government projects exemptions from state environmental review and county permitting requirements for projects taking plaee in special management areas, whieh are generally coastal lands. SB 755 was also this session's most high profile "gut-and-replace" bill, a term given to bills whose contents are - often late in session - completely removed and substituted with new language, essentially making them new measures. Critics of this procedure say that it reduces the amount of time and opportunities for the puhlie to scrutinize bills. HB 2398 Status: Enacted as Act 282 OHA |)<>silion: Oppose » Description: Although HB 2398 initially focused on the redevelopment of Honokōhau Harbor, the significant amendments made to the bill in its last committee hearing were a major concern for OHA. Act 282 now transfers the "development rights" of certain Honokōhau Harbor properties to the state's Puhlie Land Development Corporation (PLDC). OHA expressed eoneem that the transfer of the harbor development rights

may be premature, as the PLDC was only recently formed and has no rules in plaee to guide its action and projects. Act 282 also exempts the lands set aside to, owned or leased by the PLDC fromlaws (Chapter 171, Hawai'i Revised Statutes) whieh ensure that the state manages its puhlie lands - its most valuable resource - in a responsible manner. OHA expressed eoneem that this may allow PLDC lands, whieh could eventually include ceded lands, to be leased outside the state's standard lease terms and appraisal and puhlie auction requirements. GRIMINAL JUSTICE HB 2515 and SB 2776 Status: Enactedas Act 140 andAct 139 OHA |)<>silion: Support » Description: These two bills, whieh were products of the Governor's Justice Reinvestment Initiative, initially proposed a number of progressive reforms to the state's criminal justice policies. The proposed reforms included improvements to justice spending policies that would have led to savings that would be directed toward treatment and re-entry programs, and returning pa'ahao to Hawai'i from private prisons on the continent. OHA supported these bills because they would have helped improve the state's criminal justice system, whieh disproportionately impacts Native Hawaiians, according to a 2010 OHA report. While the Legislature did not adopt all of the recommendations, great strides were made. Act 140 allows probation instead of jail for certain second-time drug offenses and reduces the maximum probation for certain felonies from five to four years; and Act 139 reduces the delay in producing pretrial risk assessments, increases the membership of the Hawai'i Paroling Authority and increases victimrestitution payments. ■ Sterling Wong is OHA's public policy manager.