WAIKOLOA — On Thursday, a group of concerned citizens met Representative Cindy Evans for a face-to-face meeting at Queen’s MarketPlace to discuss the Convention of States (COS).
COS is authority given to the states under Article V of the Constitution for the purpose of proposing constitutional amendments.
Earlier that day it was announced that Evans had lost her position as House majority leader because of her vote against Senate Bill 4, which provides $2.37 billion – including a percentage of the Neighbor Islands’ Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT) – to help complete the Honolulu rail project.
“I’m really proud of her for that, for the way she went with the constituents instead of the party,” said meeting organizer Mikie Kerr, who has been involved with COS for more than two years.
Kerr, Evans and a small group of North Hawaii residents discussed the COS, and how Hawaii could play a part. The group expressed concerns about reining in the federal government and bringing more power to the state and local level. To trigger the resolution, 34 states are needed to pass Article V applications, with 12 on board presently, according to Kerr.
In Hawaii, 2,400 individuals have signed the petition thus far.
“I’m real big on local control,” said Waikoloa resident Barb Bellovich. “If I run into Evans in the market, we can talk.”
Senior adviser to the COS is former Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), who resigned from his office earlier this year frustrated with the Senate’s inability to be productive. According to Evans, Coburn said he took the position because it was the “only way to curb the federal government.”
Evans has been invited to town hall meeting with Coburn an Oahu Oct. 19.
According to ConventionofStates.com, “the Founders gave state legislatures the power to act as a final check on abuses of power by Washington, D.C. Article V of the U.S. Constitution authorizes the state legislatures to call a convention for proposing needed amendments to the Constitution. Citizens for Self-Governance has launched the Convention of States Project to call an Article V convention to propose amendments to the Constitution.”
Evans said, “There’s a general fear saying that it would be a runaway convention – take away our Second Amendment rights, abortion rights, etc. However, the current resolution only addresses three issues: fiscal restraints on the federal government, limitation on power and jurisdiction, and term limits on officials and members of Congress.”
