Voters overwhelmingly favored two proposed constitutional amendments including one that would allow counties to issue special bonds to pay for some infrastructure improvements. The other would give the Senate more time to confirm judges once they are nominated by the governor.

Based on preliminary final statewide results released Wednesday morning, proposed constitutional amendment Question 1 regarding judges passed 58.2% to 41.8% while Question 2 on bonds sailed through with 62.2% to 37.7%. For constitutional amendments, blank votes count as no votes, so the percentage of those opposed includes ballots that left the question blank.

Unions and business groups had spent more than $2.8 million in the past few months on radio and TV ads and mailers to try to persuade voters to approve Question 2. RISE Together Hawaii, a ballot issue committee, was led by the Hawaii Carpenters Market Recovery Program Fund which contributed most of the money to the campaign.

It also got substantial funding from the Regional Council of Carpenters Political Action Fund, the Hawaiʻi Operating Engineers Industry Stabilization PAC, Stanford Carr Development, the Building Industry Labor Association of Hawaii and Woody Hunt of Hunt Cos. in El Paso, Texas, a major developer in the islands.

Question 2 called for amending the state constitution to allow counties to issue so-called resilient infrastructure for shelter and equity bonds to pay for infrastructure in designated districts. A type of tax-increment financing, such bonds are used in 48 other states and are allowed by Hawaiʻi statute.

Hawaiʻi Attorney General Anne Lopez has taken the position that the current state law is unconstitutional. Counties can’t issue the bonds since the bonds aren’t explicitly allowed by the constitution, even though they’re also not prohibited.

The bonds provide a way for county governments to pay for infrastructure without spending existing tax revenue. Instead, the counties pay off the bonds with increased property taxes – the increment — generated by new developments in districts targeted for building. The basic idea is that the additional tax revenue wouldn’t exist but for the new development.

Proponents portrayed the bonds as a way to lower the cost of housing, especially in areas along the Honolulu Skyline rail line, by having the counties foot the bill instead of developers, which usually pass the costs to renters and home buyers. Ads flooding the airwaves in the last few weeks suggested the bonds could also be used to upgrade existing roads, bridges and sewer and water lines.

Opponents said the bonds would force counties to increase property taxes for all residents to pay for additional municipal services needed in booming RISE districts, although proponents said the issue was easy to solve by setting aside some of the tax increment for those district services.

Question 1 was a much easier proposal for voters to understand. It simply extends the time the Senate has to meet to consider a judicial appointment from 30 days to 60 days after the appointment is made by the governor if it is made when lawmakers are not in session or near the end of the regular session.

Currently, if an appointment is made while the part-time Legislature is not in session — roughly May through December — the Senate Judiciary Committee needs to meet in special session to consider the appointment and make a recommendation to the full Legislature.