HONOLULU — A handshake just before 3 a.m. Saturday ended the state’s budget impasse. HONOLULU — A handshake just before 3 a.m. Saturday ended the state’s budget impasse. ADVERTISING When state Rep. Marcus Oshiro and state Sen. David Ige agreed
HONOLULU — A handshake just before 3 a.m. Saturday ended the state’s budget impasse.
When state Rep. Marcus Oshiro and state Sen. David Ige agreed on an $11.2 billion state budget and a capital improvement project outlay, it ended the longest stalemate over the budget in recent memory.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports (https://bit.ly/IwkU4l ) that a difference of opinion over how much money to invest in bond-financed state construction moved from philosophical to intractable, pushing negotiations past a Friday midnight deadline and prompting House and Senate leadership to extend the cutoff for other finance-related bills until Monday morning.
Negotiators approved $428 million in new bond-financed state construction, including $250 million for repair and maintenance projects, more money than the House and Gov. Neil Abercrombie had proposed but less than the Senate had wanted to spur economic recovery.
The additional money takes the general obligation bond portion of the budget to $825 million next fiscal year.
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