Director hopes
legislators opt to avoid
using hurricane fund

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By B.J. Reyes

Associated Press

Despite what appears to be an increasingly uphill battle, the executive director of the Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund said yesterday he remains optimistic that state lawmakers will find other ways to balance the budget.

"We still hold out the hope of keeping all the moneys that are in the hurricane fund in reserve for the future hurricane fund," said Lloyd Lim.

But the House already has approved the use of $100 million from the fund, and this week, Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Brian Taniguchi said his colleagues, who have so far avoided a raid on the fund, may have to follow suit.

"I think most of the legislators would prefer not to use the hurricane fund moneys, but we recognize that they're under significant pressure due to the shortfall in revenues," Lim said. "We're hopeful they won't take all of it."

Lim was among those who testified yesterday before the committee on the House's proposal to tap the hurricane fund as a means of making up budget cuts resulting from the projected $330 million tax revenue shortfall in the current two-year budget.

The budget cuts for programs in virtually all state departments are included in the supplemental budget bill transmitted from the House last week. Using money from the hurricane fund would avoid steeper cuts.

The committee deferred a decision on both measures until next week.

The majority of those who testified opposed the budget bill in support of raiding the hurricane fund, once again telling lawmakers that departmental budget reductions of up to 5 percent would have severe negative impact on the state.

Gov. Ben Cayetano has proposed using all of the $213 million in the fund to balance the budget.

Lim told the committee that based on discussions with the financial advisers, the fund would need to retain at least $100 million to be able to reissue insurance in the event of a hurricane.

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