New plan cuts Saying the public is demanding big cuts to state government, the House and Senate budget committees agreed last night to a new state spending plan.
budget 2.5%
House and Senate committees
had planned a cut of 5%By Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.comAfter the agreement around 10:45 p.m., House Speaker Calvin Say said he was proud to have a balanced budget, but warned that cuts to social programs may result in layoffs.
"It may be in the public sector or it may be in the private sector with grants-in-aid or purchases of services with the private contractors," Say warned.
He said the original budget cuts of five percent were reduced to 2.5 percent, but the cuts came at the request of the public.
"I believe a lot of grants-in-aid will not be funded. I will be very honest with the public. The message they gave us at the beginning of the session was to cut back on government operations and spending.
"Until the cuts occur, the public isn't going to realize what they are talking about when you say to cut government," Say added.
The state contracts with private agencies to provide more than $261 million a year in special services and those "grants-in-aid" were reduced, but final budget figures were not available.
Senate President Robert Bunda, however, disagreed with Say, predicting no layoffs.
"I don't think we cut a whole lot. There is some, but it is not major and, of that, we restored some," Bunda said.
"There was no talk of layoffs," he said.
Bunda may have his own controversy as he and 15 other senators signed a pledge that they were "opposed to the use if any moneys from the Hurricane Relief Fund."
The pledge added that the House and Senate money committees were "to find alternative means to balance the budget."
But the committees last night voted to use $29 million from the fund, the interested earned on the fund, since it stopped collected insurance money.
"I am saying it is taking from the interest, not the hurricane fund," Bunda said last night.
"We pledged to look at alternatives, not any money in the hurricane relief fund. We pledged to look at all alternatives... what we didn't do was use the base of the hurricane fund," he said.
Still as the budget wrapped up last night, there was still dissent and confusion over the cuts.
The budget problem was started when a downturn in the state economy caused by the terrorist attacks of last September triggered a $300 million budget deficit.
Republican Sen. Fred Hemmings complained that the state administration, when presented with a $300 million deficit, had actually asked for another $100 million in extra state spending and failed to present a plan for cutting government programs.
"The people were short-changed again," Hemming said.
Social service representatives, such as Susan Au Doyle, vice president for community building for the Aloha United Way, said the cuts could have been worse, but said that many of the reductions were to so many programs that it was difficult to track.
"What is really hard is to add up the cumulative effect of all the little cuts," Several of the programs that were reduced, including the Hawaii Good Beginnings Alliance and the after school A+ program, helped the state make basic changes and that will hurt, she said.
But others, such as Susan Chandler, state human services director, said that while the legislature cut programs, "core services" were left intact.
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