House OKs state use State House members yesterday debated the move to transfer $100 million to the state treasury from the Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund.
of hurricane fund
House debate over budget-balancing
alternatvies ends with the 28-23 voteBy Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.comThey approved the controversial bill by a slimmer-than-expected vote of 28-23, with four Democrats -- Ed Case (Manoa), Lei Ahu Isa (Liliha), Terry Yoshinaga (Moiliili) and K. Mark Takai (Newtown) -- siding with the 19 Republicans against it.
The measure now goes to the state Senate for consideration at this halfway point of the state legislative session.
"Where's the beef?" said House Majority Leader Marcus Oshiro (D, Wahiawa).
"Show me the beef. All I've seen is a lot of bull," Oshiro added, referring to the lack of alternatives offered to balance the state budget without the $100 million from the $213 million hurricane fund.
The more than four hours of what House Speaker Calvin Say (D, Palolo) described as "bottomless debate" on House Bill 2654, House Draft 2, included an unexpected floor amendment by Case, more than an hour of closed-door talks by House Democrats to discuss Case's proposal and an extra 90 minutes of debate on the actual bill itself.
Case proposed an amendment, backed by House Republicans, that said the $100 million should not be transferred from the $213 million fund to pay for non-hurricane expenses.
Case, a candidate for governor, believes the Legislature can balance the budget without the fund if it places priorities on programs and lawmakers think outside "the box," such as a pay cut for all state workers -- from the governor on down.
"What if we all took some sort of a salary reduction to get ourselves through this period until next year until we can see whether revenues can recover," Case said. "I think we could balance our budget by a personnel salary reduction of somewhere in the range of 3 to 5 percent."
State Rep. Jim Rath (R, South Kohala) added the basic problem is that Hawaii government is too big for its citizenry to support, and unless government is downsized, this problem will continue to exist.
"There is no knight in shining armor that's going to ride in and save the State of Hawaii," Rath said.
The amendment failed by eight votes.
Along with the $100 million transfer, the bill earmarks $83 million of the $100 million for what's deemed essential programs mostly in education and human services. Also, it provides for a three-year, $5 million-a-year hurricane mitigation program to help homeowners retrofit their homes against a hurricane.
Finally, the bill authorizes $100 million in general obligation bonds to go into the fund if it is ever needed again as a result of a hurricane.
Brian Schatz (D, Makiki), House majority whip, said the transfer from the hurricane fund is necessary because there is no money in the state General Fund to make up for the $330 million shortfall, an amount equal to the annual budget of the University of Hawaii system.
Schatz added lawmakers shouldn't go back on their words by reneging on pay raises already negotiated for state public workers to help balance the budget.
"You can't be for keeping the libraries open, for A+, for pay raises, for tax cuts and for leaving HHRF alone. It doesn't add up," Schatz said. "2 plus 2 does not equal 5."
Where the money would go
A look at some of the programs that would benefit from the transfer of $100 million from the Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund to the state general fund under a bill approved by the House yesterday:>> $9.4 million to maintain elementary school student-teacher ratios at 20-to-1.
>> $5.3 million to maintain sexually transmitted disease and AIDS prevention services.
>> $3.1 million to maintain vocational programs including Health Career Academy, Future Homemakers of America and Future Farmers of America.
>> $2.7 million to maintain the Civil Process Commission and four rural courthouses in Ewa, Koolaupoko-Kaneohe, Waianae and Wahiawa.
>> $2.1 million to maintain the current level of funding for the University of Hawaii's community colleges.
>> $2.0 million for special repair and maintenance programs for public school facilities.
>> $1.9 million for Hawaiian language and cultural education programs.-- Associated Press
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