LIHUE — State Senate Majority Leader Gary Hooser is proposing that his colleagues return for a special legislative session to discuss raiding the state’s Hurricane Relief Fund to bring teachers back to the table and avoid 17 furlough Fridays for public school students.

“The only solution, the only potential plan or proposal that I’ve seen discussed is this one. So I’m trying to move the conversation forward,” Hooser (D-Kauai, Niihau) said yesterday afternoon.
In recent weeks, Gov. Linda Lingle has signaled that she is open to the idea. In 2003, she said she would not touch the fund “under any circumstances.”
In a position paper titled “A take on the hurricane fund from the senator from the hurricane island — Why we need a special session of the Legislature now,” Hooser says he has learned in the Legislature that, “When they tell you there is no money, what they are really saying is that it is not a priority.”
“While we can complain about the quality and bemoan the historical low ratings of public education in Hawaii, losing 17 days of classroom instruction will reverse years of effort and plunge our state deeper into educational mediocrity,” Hooser wrote.
“It does not have to be this way. We can avoid teacher furloughs and keep our schools open by having the political will and foresight to use a portion of the $180 million sitting now in the Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund,” he wrote.
To do that, Hooser and his colleagues need to convene a special legislative session.
House Speaker Calvin Say in the past has not been supportive of a special session to deal with the budget shortfall, according to a representative reached at Say’s office yesterday.
Hooser said he has spoken with legislators to drum up support for the plan and is now waiting for word from Lingle, with whom he hopes to set up a meeting. He said support from the Republican governor is critical because lawmakers will be reluctant to go to the extraordinary length of a one-day special session if Lingle will just veto a bill or refuse to release the funds.
“I’m certainly willing to look at certain kinds of other solutions,” Lingle said in a media question-and-answer session Sept. 10. “I told (the Senate Ways and Means Committee) on the record that I would be willing to talk with them about (the Hurricane Relief Fund), but that’s not something I can do on my own."
Hooser estimated his proposal might require about half the relief fund, and paying for all 17 furlough days would require more than that. His main objective is to get the teachers union back to the negotiating table, and he hopes some waiver or planning days are used to keep students in school for the remainder of the days, resulting in no loss of instruction time.
Hooser, who is running for lieutenant governor in 2010, said he hoped to set up the meeting with Lingle as soon as possible and convene the special session “post haste.”
“The uncertainty facing our families and teachers and school communities is not a healthy thing. Parents have to plan, teachers have to plan, so we have to resolve the issue — move forward or not move forward — soon,” he said. “I would hope the governor would give indication whether she is going to support it or not support it within the week.”
In the position paper, Hooser, who has seen two Kauai hurricanes, explains why he believes using the emergency storm fund is now an acceptable move.
“The physical damage wrought by a hurricane would be rebuilt, with or without the hurricane fund in place,” Hooser wrote.
He said the hurricane fund was created after Iniki because private insurance companies left and property owners had nowhere to turn. Now, he said, “everyone” has private insurance available to them, so “the purpose for the fund is no longer a valid purpose.”
He said the $180 million is not designed to rebuild public infrastructure, that private insurers will cover home- and business owners, and emergency aid would come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“We have to do something. The damage to students, to learning, to test scores, to child care issues, are here-and-now problems,” he said. “We have the funds available to deal with them in the short term and we should do that, because it’s just unacceptable to take 17 days away from our kids.”