State lawmakers happy;
Hawaii programs do well
in $520 billion budget

By Pete Pichaske
Star-Bulletin

WASHINGTON -- Pleased with the money it earmarks for Hawaii, if not necessarily the slapdash way it was put together, Hawaii lawmakers here supported the huge spending measure adopted yesterday.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D, and Reps. Neil Abercrombie, D-Honolulu, and Patsy Mink, D-rural Oahu/

neighbor islands, stuck around Washington to vote for the bill, although Abercrombie had come back to Hawaii for a quick weekend of campaigning and then returned again the morning after the vote.

Sen. Daniel Inouye, D, was one of six senators who did not vote on the $520 billion bill. The senator was in Hawaii campaigning for Gov. Ben Cayetano, according to aide Patrick DeLeon.

But Inouye, a senior Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, signed off on the measure as one of the conferees who helped draft it, said DeLeon.

"There are good things for Hawaii in there," said DeLeon.

Abercrombie criticized Republican leaders for waiting until the last minute to come up with a federal spending plan.

"It was a strategic disaster for them," he said, "but ended up being very good for Hawaii."

Said Akaka: "While no one can be satisfied with the process leading to passage of the omnibus budget bill, the resulting legislation contains critical investments in education and training."

The money set aside for Hawaii in spending bills passed by Congress this year includes:

$5.6 million to hire new teachers, part of a $1.1 billion plan to reduce classroom sizes nationwide, and more than the $3 million originally expected for the state.

$12.5 million for the East-West Center, $500,000 more than this year.

$25 million for the restoration of the island of Kahoolawe.

$3.5 million to control brown tree snakes, a total that includes money in three separate spending bills.

$4.5 million to expand Haleakala National Park on Maui by acquiring 1,484 acres stretching from the southeast corner of the park to the ocean.

$20 million for native Hawaiian education, up from $18 million this year.

$3.5 million for native Hawaiian health programs.

$3 million for a new program to encourage native Hawaiians to attend community college.

$6 million to set up a community resource center for American Samoans and Pacific Islanders at Kuhio Park Terrace in Honolulu.

$1 million for Honolulu's bus system and $3 million for a Honolulu Primary Corridor Transportation System study of the Ewa-East Honolulu corridor.

$10 million for a package of job training and community development projects.

One piece of spending that apparently did not make it into the catch-all budget bill was a proposal setting aside tens of millions of dollars in housing funds for needy native Hawaiians.

The measure passed the Senate last week but not the House, and efforts by Inouye to have it included in the omnibus bill failed.