Disappeared News

by Larry Geller

It’s kind of painful to listen while Hawaii state legislators grapple with strong public opposition to their grab for corporate largess.

Their idea this session is to eliminate the contribution limits now in place and let corporations know that legislators are open to whatever they may want to pay contribute. That’s right: big pharma, tobacco, gambling interests, just back the truck up to the basement loading dock and drop it off in small or large bills, your choice.

Looking at the testimony (here and here), it seems that corporations would welcome the chance to buy increase their influence. Current law limits a company’s total contributions to corporate PACs to $1000. There’s a court challenge, which this bill, HB539, would effectively supersede. They must hate that limit as much as legislators do.

In this video, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee dances around and finally concludes,

So, not all corporations are what you think, are like multi-nationals that donate to us, and not all corporations are, how should I say, here in the Capitol all the time.

Gads, what a reminder of the days, just a few sessions ago, when HMSA, HECO and other corporations had “embedded lobbyists,” that is, corporate executives, working side-by-side with legislators as “interns.” Readers of this blog sent helpful leaks that resulted in the eviction of those pests.

So no, they are not in the Capitol all the time anymore, but I suppose it would be nice if they left large wads of money when they do visit.

This short video is even more interesting. I couldn’t believe that a responsible legislator, much less the head of the Judiciary Committee, would invoke the spirit of former state senator Cal Kawamoto as a paragon of nonprofit generosity.

Judiciary chair:

…you guys put pressures so that we have limits as to how much we can give to non-profits, if not, we get busted like Cal Kawamoto.

According to the Honolulu Advertiser (6/7/2006), Sen. Kawamoto was in a heap of trouble when he got “busted:”

Former state Sen. Cal Kawamoto, already the subject of a state criminal inquiry, is also the target of a federal criminal investigation into alleged personal use of campaign funds.

The FBI and the Internal Revenue Service are investigating possible tax violations that carry criminal penalties relating to the former lawmaker's operation of a Waipahu nonprofit he founded, according to two people familiar with the investigation.
…
Kawamoto set up the nonprofit in 2003 and transferred $130,000 of his campaign funds to it after losing a re-election bid, according to state Campaign Spending Commission records. The Waipahu nonprofit doesn't run any programs of its own but rents out its 9,000-square-foot center on Hikimoe Street to other nonprofits, according to its most recent filing with the IRS.

This Judiciary chair seems to confuse his job as a legislator with that of a philanthropist.

Maybe it’s unrelated, but while the rest of us are worried about our jobs and health care, government does take care of itself and its (corporate) friends. Hawaii state legislators got a 35.7 percent pay raise effective January 1, which I don’t begrudge them, but maybe they should stop there.

Voting to blow the lid off of corporate contributions (the bill was amended to change the $25,000 limit to unlimited) is wrong at any time, but particularly now. We need legislators to pay special attention to our needs in this economic crisis and not bend to the demands of corporate greed. Corporations make an investment by contributing large sums to political campaigns, and they expect a return on their investment.

Speaking of bending to the demands of corporate greed, here’s the vote on this bill so far (we’ll keep you informed on future votes):

2/17/2009  The committees on JUD recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 11 Ayes: Representative(s) Karamatsu, Ito, Cabanilla, Herkes, Luke, Mizuno, B. Oshiro, Souki, Tsuji, Wakai; Ayes with reservations: Representative(s) Morita; 3 Noes: Representative(s) Belatti, Marumoto, Thielen; and 2 Excused: Representative(s) Carroll, McKelvey.

Thanks to those who responsibly voted “no” on this.

If you don’t think our state government should be turned over to corporate interests, please call your own state legislators and tell them how mad you are about HB539. Tell them to kill this bill dead. You can also email all House members at reps@capitol.hawaii.gov and all senators at sens@capitol.hawaii.gov. Don’t wait for someone else to send the emails, please help out by sending one yourself.

Or join the “stop the tsunami” action to kill this bill.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 2/20/2009 11:43:00 PM