Still, the budget as approved by the Senate yesterday seems unnecessarily Draconian with respect to welfare recipients -- the neediest of Hawaii's people. The Senate would cut 94 positions and $185 million from the Department of Human Services. The department's request would be reduced by 11 percent in the first year of the biennium and 19 percent in the second year, with most of the $65 million cut coming out of Medicaid and other welfare programs.
Kate Stanley, the department's deputy director, said it would have to ask the Legislature for emergency appropriations before the biennium ended. But state law bars the administration from seeking an emergency appropriation for general assistance recipients -- about 6,000 single disabled persons.
They could end up receiving just $150 a month -- which would amount to throwing them out on the street, as one advocate noted. That is not an acceptable situation. There are other ways to keep state spending within bounds, other programs that can be cut with less pain.
Ways and Means co-chairwoman Lehua Fernandes Salling explains that the Senate wants appropriations to closely match expenditures rather than accept a department's projected expenses for two years. This means close scrutiny of second-year requests, she says. But this virtually nullifies the concept of biennial budgeting and fosters the illusion that more money can be cut than is really the case.
The policy is particularly absurd as applied to the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, for which no funds are budgeted for the second year. That's ridiculous. Everyone knows the state will have to provide funds.
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John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
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A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor