State debates: Who gets
extra funds? Education cuts?

By Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

The state Council on Revenues forecast this week of a 0.5 percent growth in state revenue means the state can plan to spend between $15 million and $16 million more in its budget for fiscal year 2000-2001.

The question is who will get the money?

Gov. Ben Cayetano's Cabinet members met yesterday to discuss where the additional money would be spent. Cayetano said he wants some of that money to pay for a drug addiction treatment program for first-time, nonviolent drug offenders, rather than sending them to prison.

The governor said $15 million is not much when compared with the $3 billion state budget. He said education will be given high consideration for the additional money, although the governor continued to criticize the Department of Education and the University of Hawaii, saying they can still do more to trim their budgets.

Cayetano said the Department of Eduction and UH need "to come to grips" that the burden of the state budget cuts over the years has fallen on every other department. Over the past four years, the Department of Education has seen its budget increase rather than decrease, despite reports otherwise, he said.

The Education Department is facing proposed budget cuts of $7.4 million this year and a maximum of $13 million next year in its $820 million budget. Schools Superintendent Paul LeMahieu said the department would have to cut vital programs.

'Although the state of Hawaii
continues to put money into 'brick
and mortar' for buildings, there are
less funds to run the
current campuses.'

J.N. Musto

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII
PROFESSIONAL ASSEMBLY

Among them was reducing the hours state libraries remain open and doing away with bookmobile service. The governor said keeping libraries open should be a priority, but that is up to the school board and LeMahieu. "You know, it bothers me that the (DOE) administrative side is not focused on the delivery of services to the public," Cayetano said yesterday.

"In this state, our kids score below the national average in the verbal skills. Obviously, reading is important to the development of those skills and we need to have the libraries open. So the DOE and the superintendent of education should be asking themselves what will it take to keep the libraries open?" he said.

At the university, the UH Professional Assembly has begun opposition to further university budget cuts. The faculty union last week released a survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education that showed Hawaii had the largest decrease in funding for public higher education of any state between 1997 and 1999.

During that period, UH funding decreased 9 percent, while the only other state that cut funding for higher education was Texas, with a cut of 1 percent. California increased its funding to public higher education by 14 percent.

UHPA Executive Director J.N. Musto said the data show UH is being seriously underfunded. At the beginning of this decade, UH received more than 13 percent of the state budget. Now it is less than 9 percent, he said.

"Although the state of Hawaii continues to put money into 'brick and mortar' for buildings, there are less funds to run the current campuses," Musto said.

UHPA also announced plans this academic year to correct what it says is misinformation about the university by state officials. Musto said the public needs to know the truth about faculty workload and the positive impact UH has on the state.

The governor has been critical of the number of class hours taught by faculty, saying money could be saved if faculty taught more classes.