Fact Sheet

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

• Comprising 25, 51, or 102 delegates who are elected in May or November 2010 by mail, Internet, or at the full or a reduced number of polling places, including costs for supervision of campaign contributions and expenditures of delegates and public funding of the election of delegates;
   
• Based on 90 or 120 days with varying numbers of delegate personal staff and convention support staff compensated at various levels in terms of salary, per diem, payroll, fringe benefits and travel, hotel, and rental car costs;
   
• Held at various sites offering a range of facilities, including a plenary session room, conference rooms, and delegate office space with and without modular office furniture when open floor space is involved;
   
• Supplied with sufficient operational capability, including office furniture, office supplies, stationery, paper, printers, copiers, and facsimile machines, and reimbursed for postage; and provision made for printing and binding of a constitutional convention journal;
   
• Equipped with sufficient information and communications capability, including a secure information and communications system for drafting, sharing, tracking, and archiving of documents, consisting of computer hardware, software, and engineering services; a telephone network system; and television coverage and broadcast of convention events; and
   
• Supported by pre-convention activities consisting of Legislative Reference Bureau constitutional convention studies to educate, to the extent possible, candidates, delegates, and the public; post-convention publicity and media campaign to educate voters on constitutional amendment proposals, and provide for public inspection of proposals at public places.
   

The report also presents low and high reasonable estimates of total costs that attempt to take into consideration all of the factors. However, it should be noted that these estimated totals do not include the as yet undetermined costs, each of which may be substantial, of:

• The vote counting system for the election of delegates;
   
• Compensating entities to preempt prior contracted scheduled events at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center or the Hawaii Convention Center, assuming these facilities are able and willing to preempt these events; and
   
• The "media buy" (e.g., television advertising) component in the media campaign to educate voters.