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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 3, 2001 |
Contact: Rep. Galen Fox Tel.: 586-8520 |
GOP: Dems Fail to Support Their Own Vote
The State House Republican Caucus has released the following statement:
The Republicans in the State House offered a motion to override Governor Cayetano's veto of SB 207, relating to inter-island vehicle transfers. Such an override has not happened in Hawaii since the early days of statehood--and never has a Democratic legislature overridden a Democratic governor. The Republican motion failed, 29 to 22, because virtually every Democrat legislator decided to go along with the Governor despite the fact that the measure originally passed unanimously in every committee and in both houses.
The Republicans pointed out that the vehicle transfer bill was just more effort to cut unnecessary bureaucracy and that the Governor's objections to the bill noted in his veto message had been heard in committee and rejected. Republican legislators also noted that one can ship a car to the mainland with less paperwork than that required to ship a vehicle inter-island.
Speaker Emeritus, Rep. Joe Souki, who joined with the Republicans in voting in favor of the override, told the body that he had been pushing this bill for years because his constituents on Maui, and other Neighbor Islands, supported such a passage.
"It was a pathetic display of legislative timidity," said Rep. Chris Halford, Minority Policy Leader, "Those Democrats who reversed their previous votes so readily are all candidates for inclusion in Profiles in Cabbage, you know, they took a little heat and wilted."
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