HONOLULU (AP) — The Hawaii House of Representatives passed the state’s $30.7 billion two-year spending plan, after a heated debate about which schools should get construction funding and how much money should go to Hawaiian Home Lands.
Gov. David Ige proposed spending about $2 billion more over the biennium than the Legislature approved last year. The House on Wednesday kept the overall spending level about the same, but it reduced the governor’s operating budget request by about $47 million for 2017, approving the bill and sending it to the Senate.
Republican Rep. Gene Ward cast the lone no vote against the budget, saying the state should be giving more money to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, which awards 99-year land leases to Hawaiians for $1 a year as part of a federal program that began in 1920. There were more than 27,600 people on a waiting list for those land leases last year.
“I’m taking a stand for what I believe is the right thing to do, and no one has convinced me otherwise,” Ward said in an interview. “I really have a strong distaste for what they’re doing to the Hawaiian Home Lands, and the Hawaiians who have waited 96 years.”
The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands had requested $28 million, and a judge had ordered the Legislature in November to fulfill that request. But the court order was later revised.
Lawmakers also clashed over how the Finance Committee divvied up funding for school construction projects. Ige’s proposal to spend $35 million to build an additional classroom facility at overcrowded Campbell High School was reduced to $15 million, a decision Rep. Bob McDermott called a “gross misfire.” McDermott, who represents Ewa on Oahu, complained that the budget committee approved money for a new school on Maui, saying “it’s not needed, and the people of West Oahu will not stand for it.”
The budget passed by the House includes more than $300 million for school facilities statewide. The new Kihei High School being built in South Maui was awarded $37.5 million to continue construction that began in January, an amount far below what was requested for that school, House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke said.
Both school construction projects will be able to proceed, Luke said. Overcrowding is not just limited to West Oahu, “it’s happening all over,” she added.
On affordable housing, the House substantially reduced the amount of bond money set aside for new housing development. Ige’s budget called for $75 million in general obligation bonds for the for the rental housing revolving fund, which gives low-interest loans to developers for construction of affordable rentals, but the House reduced that to $25 million. They also reduced Ige’s suggested $25 million for the dwelling unit revolving fund — a similar program aimed at developing affordable homes for purchase — to $12.5 million.
The budget also included nearly $4 million for previously unbudgeted vacation payout expenses for state employees.
“Departments were leaving positions vacant because of having to pay sick leave and vacation payouts,” Luke said. “No department should be forced to pass up hiring a qualified staffer just because there wasn’t enough money to pay for retiree benefits.”