In their opening session for 2012, the State of Hawaii House and Senate leaders made several joint announcements including the promise to avoid creating new taxes or major spending increases for the coming year. Calvin Say, the House Speaker, stated, “For the short term, we must maintain stability with respect to the state budget. Maintaining stability means no new taxes for state government from residents and businesses. Maintaining stability means no major general fund appropriation increases for the expansion of state programs.”
Shan Tsutsui, the Senate President, suggested creating a $500 Million construction bond to help repair public schools, hospitals and state buildings. Tsutsui stated, “This bill will have two primary objectives. One, to aggressively cut into the state’s multibillion-dollar deferred repair and maintenance backlog. And two, it would immediately create jobs for our local residents.”
