Wednesday, April 15, 1998
What ever happened to the $4 million in federal transit funds Kuakini Health System received to build its employee parking garage, which U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye helped push through? Kuakini parking
subsidy unpaidThe check has yet to be put in the mail.
The $6 million private parking garage at Kuakini Medical Center is finished and awaiting a certificate of occupancy from the city. But the $4 million in federal mass-transit money to help fund it, pushed through Congress by Inouye, hasn't arrived.
"There's no indication as to when and if it will be released," said Donda Spiker, Kuakini spokeswoman, adding that Inouye's office is helping Kuakini get ahold of the funds.
The grant for the four-level employee parking lot was to be provided by the Federal Transit Administration, which normally funds mass-transit projects like bus systems.
Critics last year labeled the money a clear example of pork-barrel legislation.
Inouye's office at the time defended the funding, saying it was aimed at alleviating traffic around the medical center.
Inouye originally asked for $8 million. That was cut in half by the Senate Appropriations Committee, which approved the funds in 1995.
Spiker emphasized that the bus system had not requested any funds from the Federal Transit Administration in 1995, and Kuakini did not receive money that would have otherwise gone to the state or city.
Jinny Okubo, former office manager of Inouye's Honolulu office and a longtime Kuakini volunteer, became a director for Kuakini Health System in 1995, the same year the grant was approved. In 1996, she was named board chairwoman of the Kuakini Foundation, the medical center's main fund-raising arm.
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