Bishop trustee salary limit an excellent idea

The Senate Judiciary Committee is currently in the process of considering one of the most intelligent measures of this term -- the limitation of Bishop Estate trustee salaries.

The bill under consideration would limit the trustees' salaries to no more than the salary of the chief justice of the Hawai`i Supreme Court, which is currently $94,780 a year.

Bishop Estate trustees now make more than $800,000 a year.

The excessive salaries that the trustee receive could easily be the source of many of Bishop Estate's problems. Fat salaries like this beg for politics to get involved; greed and self-interest take precedence over issues of public interest.

The result is trustees who are more politically associated than qualified.

The new bill dictates a compensatory roof of slightly less than $100,000. This is till more than adequate compensation for the services rendered by trustees, and may just be the key to regain some of the Bishop Estate's former integrity.