ConCon$ in Hawaii

House Concurrent Resolution No. 231, House Draft 1, adopted during Hawaii's Regular Session of 2008, directs the Legislative Reference Bureau to study the costs of convening a constitutional convention and provide an estimate of the projected total cost.

LRB released this report today which contains the results of their study and their estimate of the total projected cost of a constitutional convention, including consideration of various alternatives.

This report estimates costs of a constitutional convention held on Oahu in 2010 or 2012.

Cost Estimates For A Constitutional Convention (pdf, 111pp/680kB)

See also:
FR 8.11.2008 on the Hawaii Constitutional Convention Cost Task Force, led by Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, and its final report.

FR 6.16.2008 on LRB's Hawaii Constitutional Convention Studies, 1978.

Hawaii ConCon?

The Hawaii Legislative Reference Bureau has been requested by the 2008 Legislature (HCR231 HD1, 2008; pdf) to study the costs of convening a constitutional convention and provide an estimate of the projected total cost.

Revisions of or amendments to the Hawaii State constitution may be proposed by constitutional convention or by the legislature. (Hawaii Constitution, Article XVII).

Section 2 also states:

The legislature may submit to the electorate at any general or special election the question, "Shall there be a convention to propose a revision of or amendments to the Constitution?" If any nine-year period shall elapse during which the question shall not have been submitted, the lieutenant governor shall certify the question, to be voted on at the first general election following the expiration of such period.

The last ConCon convened in 1978.

The Hawaii Constitutional Studies 1978 were undertaken at the direction of the legislature and are an attempt to present in understandable form many of the possible issues and the arguments on both sides of such issues that the delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1978 may wish to consider.

Hawaii Constitutional Convention Studies 1978