At Tuesday's House Judiciary committee hearing on a controversial bill to promote free meals and junkets for state lawmakers and state employees, the Chair simply didn't want to hear testimony from the Ethics Commission.
SB671, in its current form, would allow unlimited free meals, golf club tickets, junkets and boondoggles for any Hawaii state employee or state legislator from a wide variety of non-profit corporations. Public opposition (including a newspaper editorial) has been universal, except, of course for the organizations salivating at the chance to buy influence.<
And why wouldn't they? The bill is not limited to charitable fundraisers--in fact, as Les Kondo, Executive Director of the Hawaii State Ethics Commission, was trying to explain, the bill apply to any non-profit, including chambers of commerce, service providers, unions, country clubs, state contractors and vendors, and a host of other organizations.
State employees who regulate these businesses would be eligible for what amounts to legalized bribery.
As you will see in the video, the chair of the Judiciary Committee did not want to hear the testimony.
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