SB933CD1 is a “twofer” when it comes to violating Article III of the Hawai‘i State Constitution which says “legislative committee meetings held for the purpose of making decision on matters referred to the committee shall be open to the public”.

Signed into law on July 9, 2025 SB933CD1 was conceived, negotiated, and decided upon in private by a legislative committee without any public notice, review or input, AND it establishes a separate 4 person legislative committee tasked with giving out $50,000,000 to private non-profits, while exempting that new legislative committee from requirements to conduct its activities in public.

I wrote about SB933CD1 previously (A travesty of process and policy).

Today, I’d like to thank Governor Green for the “shout out” during his press conference commemorating the signing and passage into law of SB933CD1.

Yes, absolutely I’m seeking to shine a spotlight on the extreme deficiencies of this new law (to paraphrase from the remarks offered at the press conference.)

His remarks during the Q&A portion of the press conference, have both motivated me personally to push even harder on this issue AND elevated public awareness of the “constitutional deficiencies” contained within SB933CD1 (as mentioned by Representative Della Bellati in the Honolulu StarAdvertiser).

Hawai‘i Public Radio has also reported on the constitutional concerns, as has Kevin Dayton at Civil Beat who wrote “Lawmakers’ Plan To Give $50M To Nonprofits May Be Unconstitutional”, an excellent piece explaining a complicated process in easy to understand terms. AND also featured in Civil Beat today is Judith Wong, president of the League of Women Voters of Hawai‘i who writes this thoughtful piece “Bill For Hawaiʻi Nonprofit Grants Lacks Transparency”.

Mahalo Gov!

The Governor’s remarks at the press conference, and those of Senator Troy Hashimoto and Representative Daniel Holt (both members of the SB933CD1 Conference Committee), further confirmed that the discussions, deliberation, negotiations, and resulting decisions made by the Conference Committee, were all done in private – contrary to Article III of the Hawai‘i State Constitution.

Representative Holt a House Conferee said, SB933 ”was a difficult process…it did take some creativity at the end”.

Senator Hashimoto, Chair of the Senate Conference Committee said, SB933 “was given to me at the very end of the session to help negotiate…many people were involved in the discussions. The LG was doing a lot of negotiations…to make sure we can legally do this …the bill will follow HRS42F (pertaining to grants) in spirit…”

Note: Words matter. To say the bill will follow the law “in spirit” raises additional red flags…as does referencing negotiations “to make sure we can legally do this”…

There appear to be several serious legal problems with SB933CD1 including legal prohibitions on the “gut and replace” legislative practice and the separation of power between the executive and legislative branches of government.

Most importantly, Article III of the State Constitution says unambiguously “Every meeting of a committee in either house or of a committee comprised of a member or members from both houses held for the purpose of making decision on matters referred to the committee shall be open to the public.”

Clearly, these two legislators (both of whom were conference committee members), met in private with each other and others (either virtually or in person) for the purpose of making a decision on SB933 which was referred to their conference committee.

Both of these legislators and the governor alluded during the press conference to numerous meetings that were conducted as the group worked toward building a consensus and coming to their final decision.

None of these conversations occurred at a properly noticed, public committee hearing/meeting.

The public was never provided a copy of the proposed SB933CD1, never allowed to ask questions, and never allowed to testify on the measure.

Bottom line: The decision-making conducted during the creation and ultimate committee approval of SB933CD1 falls far short of Article III of the Hawai‘i State Constitution AND the proposed 4 member legislative committee (being formed to give away $50,000,000) also must comply with this constitutional mandate.

Watch on FB and Insta the actual “bill signing press conference” for SB933CD1.

It’s eerily similar to press conferences held almost daily by the President.

The script goes something like this:

The President/Governor announces some new bright and shiny action (the signing of SB933CD1), a member of the press in attendance asks a potentially controversial question (about a possible violation of the constitution), the Governor/President explodes in a petulant tirade against the person (yours truly) perceived to be responsible for exposing the problem – and of course the Governor/President never addresses the actual question or concerns raised.

Watch the press conference please and decide for yourself.

To paraphrase Hamlet by William Shakespeare.
“Me thinks, he doth protest too much”

Gary Hooser
Yes…former State Senator and Majority Leader…so I have a little bit of experience with this stuff…but do not remember it being this bad when I was there 2002 – 2010.