Faculty union
asks regents to join
suit to hike UH budget

The issue is a law that requires funding
be put back to the 1995 level

Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

The University of Hawaii faculty union wants the Board of Regents to join in a possible lawsuit against the state over a two-year-old law that sets this year's UH budget at 1995 levels.

That law, Act 161, required the state to restore UH's general fund budget to 1995 levels on July 1, 1997, which would have meant a boost in UH's current funding of $273 million to $352.8 million.

The state, however, hasn't complied with the law. Also, last month, Gov. Ben Cayetano vetoed an amendment passed by this year's Legislature that would have postponed Act 161's effective date until fiscal year 1999-2000.

That veto, says J.N. Musto, executive director of the UH Professional Assembly, means the state is obliged to follow Act 161 and set the university budget at $352.8 million. It's a matter so serious Musto wants the union, the UH and others to form a coalition to seek legal action.

"We think that the governor made a very substantial mistake in vetoing this bill," Musto told regents yesterday. "We think that the recourse of having vetoed it is that he should be required to call a special session of the Legislature to fund Act 161."

Eugene Imai, UH senior vice president for administration, told the regents' Budget Committee that the veto has created confusion and that the UH has sought legal clarification from the attorney general's office. "If the bill is vetoed, we fall back on Act 161 as it exists on the statute," he said. "And obviously, the provisions in that act are not being complied with because we are not at the fiscal year 1995 general fund appropriation levels."

Cayetano, in his June 16 veto memo of House Bill 2234, cited as the reason for his veto additional language in the amendment prohibiting the governor and the state finance director from reducing the UH budget below what is appropriated by the Legislature. The bill, he said, seriously compromises the governor's fiduciary responsibility to control state general fund spending relative to general fund revenue.

"Under this bill, adjustments cannot be made to the university's budget and allocation regardless of the financial condition of the state," Cayetano said.

Regent Ah Quon McElrath said Musto has raised the larger issue of autonomy for the UH, which will determine whether UH becomes a "truly great" institution.

"I rather suspect that if we are played like a yo-yo, with no apparent stability in our funding source ... that the aspiration to become a great university will probably not be realized," she said.