Car allowance scandal
hastens Kauai's return
to line-item budgeting

---

By Anthony Sommer
tsommer@starbulletin.com

LIHUE >> Kauai Mayor Maryanne Kusaka yesterday issued a veto message ending a three-year experiment that gave her broad discretion in shifting county funds.

But while she struck down a dozen technical items in the fiscal 2002 budget, she did not veto the portion switching the county back to a strict line-item budget.

With all seven County Council members voting to abandon program budgeting and return to line-item budgeting, Kusaka had no hope of beating an override vote.

Kusaka also did not veto any dollar amounts in the budget, even on issues she publicly opposed.

The mayor had lobbied against a property tax decrease, but the Council approved one anyway.

The vote was so lopsided, Kusaka's veto would have stood no chance of being sustained.

The line-item vs. program budgeting vote was a major defeat.

It was triggered by her office shifting funds to boost her $4,000 annual auto allowance into almost $16,000 to lease a new luxury car.

The Council learned about the car a month after she leased it, and whether it was done legally remains an unresolved issue.

Unlike line budgets, which hold the executive branch to strict spending limits, program budgets allow money to be moved around to meet needs without Council approval.

But program budgets also require that every county agency and every employee have a set of goals to achieve each year.

Council members, including some who supported her three years ago when they voted to implement program budgeting, said Kusaka wanted flexibility with the funds, but they noted that in three years not a single goal had been drafted.