Kauai Council approves
increased budget

---

By Anthony Sommer
Star-Bulletin

LIHUE >> The Kauai County Council yesterday gave tentative approval to an 18 percent budget increase for fiscal year 2002.

Meeting as the Committee of the Whole, the Council adopted the budget unanimously. Members reserved comments until their formal vote on May 31.

In policy terms the budget is a far cry from what Mayor Maryanne Kusaka requested. Her office is being circumspect on the possibility of a veto.

In terms of the bottom line, the Council's budget, when $1.2 million in operating funds parked in the construction budget are added in, totals $82.7 million, down only slightly from Kusaka's request for $82.9 million.

The current year's operating budget is $70 million.

The nonmonetary language in the budget, however, was a clear defiance of the mayor.

The Council scrapped a three-year experiment with program budgeting that gave the mayor and her department heads broad latitude in moving dollars within their agencies. Instead, the county will return to a line-item budget in which the administration will be required to spend as the Council directs.

The Council also passed a property tax decrease of 10 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation for all classes of property and gave another 10 cent reduction to residential property. The mayor recommended against lowering taxes.

---

Kauai County