State: Holdout of funds
didn’t hurt UH

By Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

The University of Hawaii has not been affected because Gov. Ben Cayetano withheld nearly $7 million from the UH budget after a successful faculty union challenge to the state payroll lag, says Eugene Imai, UH senior vice president for administration.

Instead, Imai said, the UH rolled over the shortfall from last fiscal year to this year on assurances from the governor that he would support efforts next legislative session to allow UH to recoup the money.

"The governor has assured us that he would support the appropriation from the 1999 Legislature for this current year," Imai said.

The UH Professional Assembly filed a lawsuit in federal court yesterday alleging that Cayetano and state Budget Director Earl Anzai unilaterally deducted the amount of "savings" from the UH payroll lag from the university budget.

UHPA Executive Director J.N. Musto said the action caused irreparable harm to students, educational programs and university research projects by disrupting and interrupting higher education throughout the 10-campus UH system. He blamed the move by Cayetano as punishment to the UH faculty for opposing his will.

The lawsuit seeks restoration of the "illegally sequestered" funds, Musto said.

Imai, however, said yesterday the money -- which he puts at about $6.2 million -- did not result in any cutbacks in operations. He said Cayetano assured him there would be no further cuts to the UH budget and that he would support an emergency appropriation for it in the 1999 Legislature.

The UH general fund budget was cut by 5 percent, or $13.5 million, last fiscal year from $272.5 million to $259 million.

Imai refused to comment on the timing of the lawsuit, a week before the Nov. 3 general elections. UHPA, the faculty union, has endorsed Cayetano's Republican opponent, Maui Mayor Linda Lingle, in the governor's race.

Anzai yesterday had said the lawsuit sounds like election-year politics, but did not comment on the allegations.

U.S. District Judge Alan Kay this summer blocked the UH faculty payroll lag after UHPA claimed it had a different state labor contract and shouldn't be bound by the payroll lag. The cost-saving plan was to save the state $51 million.

State Rep. Chris Halford (R, Makena-Kihei) blamed the confusion on the state payroll lag and the administration's cuts in education. He said Cayetano has been bewildered about the fiscal and economic implications of the payroll lag.