Gov. Linda Lingle yesterday vetoed 27 bills passed last session by the state Legislature, including bills that would have provided free healthcare for uninsured children and the most generous unemployment benefits in the nation.

The administration determined that the healthcare plan, a partnership between the state and the Hawai'i Medical Service Association, might compete with Quest, the state's medical insurance program for the poor, and might have led some private companies to limit insurance for workers' children. State lawmakers have said they would try to pass the bill, meant to help several thousand children who may fall into the gap between state and private health insurance, again next session.

The administration also rejected the bill extending unemployment insurance to 30 weeks, finding that it was a permanent increase in unemployment costs while only offering businesses a temporary, two-year break on the amount paid into the state's unemployment insurance trust fund.

The governor also vetoed bills favored by labor unions involving workers' compensation and prevailing wages. The unemployment insurance and workers' compensation bills had been opposed by the Chamber of Commerce of Hawai'i.

Lingle decided to remove one bill — which restricted the state from canceling family visits to prison inmates when families have paid substantial travel costs — from her initial veto list and allow it to become law without her signature.

The governor had vetoed five bills during the session, for 32 in all this year.

"I have a responsibility to consider the long-term impact of allowing a bill to become law, including any potential unintended consequences," Lingle said in a statement. "After an extensive review process, which in many cases included meeting with various parties who testified on the bills and taking into consideration communications from the public, I have decided that it is in the best interest of the public not to allow these measures to become law."

State House and Senate leaders said Monday that they would not return for an override session, so Lingle's vetoes will stand.

House Speaker Calvin Say, D-20th (St. Louis Heights, Palolo, Wilhelmina Rise), said he expects lawmakers will revisit many of the bills Lingle vetoed next session.

"We can work on the objections that she raised in her veto messages and craft our legislation next year," Say said.

Union leaders had asked House and Senate Democrats to override Lingle's vetoes, but Say said he did not detect much pressure from other interest groups in the days after the governor announced her list.

Say said he was disappointed the governor ignored a House request on Monday not to veto the free health plan for uninsured children. "The child is the one who suffers the most," he said.

The state has expanded eligibility to provide more free coverage for children though Quest and has reduced premiums to make Quest more affordable to middle-income parents who pay to have their children covered by the state.

Lillian Koller, director of the state Department of Human Services, said the free health plan proposed under the bill may have diverted children from Quest's comprehensive coverage into a program with more limited services.

Koller said in a statement yesterday that she agrees with the bill's authors, including state Rep. Josh Green, D-6th (Kailua, Keauhou), a Big Island doctor, that all children should be insured, but not with their approach.

"That is why, during the past four years, our department has worked tirelessly to reduce the number of uninsured keiki in Hawai'i," she said.

Senate President Robert Bunda, D-22nd (North Shore, Wahiawa), agreed with Say that many of the vetoed bills likely would be introduced again next session.

"Although many of us would be willing to argue the merits of the bills, obviously less than a majority of us felt the need was critical or urgent enough to come back in an override session," he said.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.