Money market: If you were thinking Hawaiʻi lawmakers would take note of public opposition to hefty pay raises for themselves and other state officials and turn them down, think again.

Legislative leaders on Tuesday made clear they will not bring the recommendations of the Hawaiʻi Salary Commission up for a vote this year. And no vote means the raises are going through unchallenged. And they’re good for the next six years.

The state Salary Commission last month recommended a package of raises that range from 35% to 48% over six years for the Legislature, state judges, the governor and lieutenant governor, and state department heads and their deputies.

Under the language in the state Constitution that created the commission, most of those raises automatically take effect starting July 1 unless a majority of lawmakers vote to reject them during the current legislative session.

But nope. Not happening.

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The announcement by Kouchi and Nakamura on Tuesday made clear there will be no such vote, and no additional public hearings to discuss the raises, either.

House Minority Leader Diamond Garcia joined other House Republicans in introducing a resolution to reject the raises, and Republican Sens. Brenton Awa and Samantha DeCorte did the same in the Senate.

But Garcia told reporter Kevin Dayton on Monday he never heard back from House Democrats about the issue.

“I didn’t hear anything from the committee chairs it was assigned to, I didn’t hear anything from the Democrat leadership at all,” he said of the House resolution. “It seems like their position was they definitely want the raise without the public attention.”

“I think them not even hearing it is a slap in the face to the public because you would at least want the public to testify on it,” he said.

Garcia acknowledged the public had opportunities to testify on the pay raise issue during Salary Commission meetings, but said most people don’t know what the commission is, or what it does.

Nakamura and Kouchi did testify before the Salary Commission last fall, and Nakamura made a pitch at the time for higher pay for lawmakers. Kouchi argued being a state lawmaker today is essentially a full-time job.

In the end the Salary Commission recommended raises for rank-and-file lawmakers that will increase their salaries from $74,160 today to $97,896 on Jan. 1, 2027, which is a bump of 32%. Their salaries will then continue to increase in steps over the following three years until they reach $114,348 in 2030.

The House speaker and Senate president will receive comparable raises that will increase their pay from $83,052 today to $128,052 in 2030.

“Especially if we’re going to be OK’ing massive pay raises for us as part-time legislators, they should have definitely at least gave it a public hearing to give the people an opportunity to testify,” Garcia said. “It goes to show the current leadership unfortunately is the same old Democrat machine that is not accountable to the people.”

Salary commission members who met with Civil Beat reporters and editors last month (after the commission was disbanded so no Sunshine Law violation) boiled it down to a pretty simple calculation. State judges really need a raise or no one will want to be a judge. The pay raise law inextricably ties the judges’ raises to the Legislature’s and to executive branch raises. You can’t do one without the others so the judges’ tide is lifting all boats. Or salaries in this case.

All The Blog can say is: Time for a year-round, full-time Legislature. As we said before, the public needs to insist on full-time work for full-time pay.

And we put together this handy chart showing raises for key offices starting this year. You have to scroll from side to side to take it all in.

So long, it’s been good to know you: The Blog would like to bid a fond aloha (the good-bye kind) to two longtime and well-known, at least in media circles, spokespeople.

Dan Dennison, the communications director for the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources, has for years kept a very tight rein on the information flow from that agency. Let’s just say he’s infamous among local reporters — and DLNR staff — for his own rule of law as to who can talk to the press and who can’t. Even if they want to.

Word of Dennison’s July 1 retirement comes at the end of an email justifying to his boss, Dawn Chang, his comms staff and Gov. Josh Green’s communications director Makana McClellan why he turned down yet another interview request, this one about water issues from Civil Beat reporter Marcel Honore.

“I’m retiring July 1, and I can tell you this is one issue I’ll be happy to leave behind,” he says.

While Dennison creates his own media twilight zone at DLNR, that’s not the case at the Honolulu Police Department where it’s the brass not the flack that frustratingly keeps a lid on public information.

So the Blog was sorry to hear that Michelle Yu, who’s been the media go-to person for the Honolulu Police Department for as long as The Blog can remember, has told colleagues she will retire next month.

HPD is notorious for its lack of transparency, routinely declining interviews and refusing to allow media ridealongs that are common at police departments throughout the country.

But we’ve always found Yu to be responsive and gracious in denying our information requests. She’s handled her spot between a rock and a hard place with aplomb and aloha (the compassionate kind). For that she deserves a big mahalo.

The Blog is so looking forward to the day Honolulu finally gets a modern police administration that understands the importance of media relations as a necessary path toward strong community building. We’re looking at you, Charter Commission.

From the inbox: The Blog just had to share this one.