HONOLULU — A judge says the state has to appropriate millions of dollars more to fund the Department of Hawaiian Homelands adequately for the first time since at least 1992.
First Circuit Judge Jeannette Castagnetti ruled the state violated its constitutional duty to appropriately fund the department, impacting staffing and Native Home Lands Trust beneficiaries, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
Hawaii is obligated to budget about $18.4 million more this year for the department.
Friday’s ruling was issued about eight years after the nonprofit Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation filed the lawsuit on behalf of six Native Hawaiians.
A judge ruled for the state in 2009, but the decision was appealed and overturned. The case eventually reached the state Supreme Court.
“The state’s track record in supporting DHHL’s success is poor,” the state’s high court said in 2012.
Plaintiff Kelii Ioane Jr. applied for a homestead lease in 1981 and has been waiting on an agricultural or pastoral lot ever since.
David Kimo Frankel is the plaintiffs’ lead attorney and says he hopes the ruling means beneficiaries can move from the waiting list to homesteads more quickly.
“It’s a great decision,” Frankel said. “The next step is to get the money released to the department.”
Attorney General Doug Chin says the state will review and consider appealing.
Payments ended in June for a decades-old settlement over wrongful use and withdrawal from the trust of Hawaiian Home Lands. The settlement brought $30 million in annual funding intended to be separate from the department’s budget, but was used for administrative and operating expenses.
Castagnetti’s ruling says the Department of Hawaiian Homelands failed to request funds from 2010 to 2013, breaching “their trust duties by failing to seek from the Legislature all the funding (DHHL) needs for its administrative and operating budget.”