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Editorial
Time for a convention
POSTED: June 7, 2008
The lieutenant governor of Hawaii may place the issue of a Constitutional Convention up for a vote anytime a decade has gone by without holding one or without the question appearing on a ballot.
The last time the state of Hawaii had a Constitutional Convention was in 1978. At that convention, the delegates proposed limiting the governor and lieutenant governor to two terms in office and the creation of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. They also favored recognizing Hawaiian as an official state language,
Those amendments were ratified by voters.
In 1998, voters rejected the call for a Constitutional Convention. This year, Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona has placed the question on the November ballot. Back in December Aiona told the Honolulu Advertiser that voters might want a convention to tackle issues like education reform, energy use and government accountability.
If voters approve a convention, it will be held in 2010.
The idea of a Constitutional Convention should be very appealing to Neighbor Island residents. Certainly the Neighbor Islands are never going to have a say in — much less control of — their own schools, health care facilities or transportation systems while those institutions are run by centralized bureaucracies on Oahu.
And a Legislature that is beholden to those bureaucracies’ unions is never going to vote to give the Neighbor Islands any semblance of home rule.
That leaves the mechanism of a Constitutional Convention. And, frankly, for issues such as these it is probably the best mechanism. For these are basic questions about what should be under the state’s control and what should be under the county’s. Are Maui residents best equipped to decide what schools, health facilities and roads they need? Or should bureaucrats on Oahu be making those decisions?
We don’t see any other way to give residents a chance to vote on these basic home rule issues other than a Constitutional Convention. Of course, the convening of such an affair doesn’t automatically mean that home rule will appear on a ballot.
But it’s a certainty that without one the bureaucratic status quo will remain.
The last time the state of Hawaii had a Constitutional Convention was in 1978. At that convention, the delegates proposed limiting the governor and lieutenant governor to two terms in office and the creation of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. They also favored recognizing Hawaiian as an official state language,
Those amendments were ratified by voters.
In 1998, voters rejected the call for a Constitutional Convention. This year, Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona has placed the question on the November ballot. Back in December Aiona told the Honolulu Advertiser that voters might want a convention to tackle issues like education reform, energy use and government accountability.
If voters approve a convention, it will be held in 2010.
The idea of a Constitutional Convention should be very appealing to Neighbor Island residents. Certainly the Neighbor Islands are never going to have a say in — much less control of — their own schools, health care facilities or transportation systems while those institutions are run by centralized bureaucracies on Oahu.
And a Legislature that is beholden to those bureaucracies’ unions is never going to vote to give the Neighbor Islands any semblance of home rule.
That leaves the mechanism of a Constitutional Convention. And, frankly, for issues such as these it is probably the best mechanism. For these are basic questions about what should be under the state’s control and what should be under the county’s. Are Maui residents best equipped to decide what schools, health facilities and roads they need? Or should bureaucrats on Oahu be making those decisions?
We don’t see any other way to give residents a chance to vote on these basic home rule issues other than a Constitutional Convention. Of course, the convening of such an affair doesn’t automatically mean that home rule will appear on a ballot.
But it’s a certainty that without one the bureaucratic status quo will remain.
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