State must honor its
obligation to HawaiiansAiding native inhabitants
By Haunani Apoliona
will improve life for all
island residentsStar-Bulletin columnist A.A. Smyser's two recent columns (Aug. 18 and 20) on ceded land revenues brought welcome focus to an issue that clearly needs to be resolved -- how to ensure that the provisions of the 1959 Statehood Act are carried out with respect to Hawaiians.
These provisions recognize a trust obligation to Hawaiians that harkens back to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and its annexation by the United States. It is an obligation that every associated piece of subsequent legislation has reconfirmed.
The land is held by the state in public trust. That makes it different from state-owned land that was purchased or condemned. Hawaiians are the only group specifically identified by law to receive benefits from the use of these lands because the land belonged to them before it was illegally taken.
The reason that 20 percent of the state's non-tax revenues from these lands is specifically earmarked for the betterment of conditions of native Hawaiians is because that is one of the five specific trust obligations that accompany the land as specified by law -- one-fifth, 20 percent. It is not an option; it's an obligation, legal and fiduciary.
Considering the source of the land, and the well-documented legacy of illegal and negligent actions under which it was obtained and is held, doesn't the revenues from Hawaiian ceded lands represent an incredible, obscene windfall for the state government?
If there was no ceded land revenues, wouldn't the state have to increase taxes to meet the public obligations now covered by that revenues?
And if the state knew from statehood in 1959 that it had this trust obligation, why did it use ALL revenues from ceded lands for almost 30 years, instead of putting some of it into escrow as any prudent fiduciary would have done?
Smyser says the law is "flawed" and "too burdensome" for the state, suggesting this is the reason we must now use courts and negotiations to complete the process.
But it's not the law that is flawed -- it's the state's unbelievably poor records and accounting of ceded land revenues during the past 40 years that is creating problems.
And how can anyone say that a trust obligation to Hawaiians of $15.1 million has become "too burdensome" for the state, especially when the state receives some $6 billion each year in gross revenues?
Think about it! What is right? What is fair? Let's be honest.
The state, and the state's taxpayers, need to understand that Hawaii does not lose by honoring its trust obligations to Hawaiians. All of this money stays in the state and is used to better the conditions of Hawaii's aboriginal people.
Rather than being an unconscionable burden, honoring the obligation helps to right what almost everyone concedes was a terrible wrong which persists to this day.
In fact, it represents a small measure of justice for Hawaiians.
Haunani Apoliona is vice chairperson of the
Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.