Council panel The City Council Budget Committee voted this morning to approve a $1.1 billion operating budget that is just slightly lower than the budget submitted by Mayor Jeremy Harris.
OKs city budget
At $1.1 billion, the budget is
nearly what Harris had requestedBy Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.comA $400-million plus capital improvements package for the year that begins July 1 was approved late last night.
It appeared that funding would be restored for Honolulu City Lights, economic development programs such as Sunset on the Beach and Brunch on the Beach, pothole repairs, golf course maintenance, weekend staffing for traffic signal control and stenographers for the city's attorneys.
A final vote by the full Council is expected on May 29.
This year's budget debate ranks among the most contentious of Mayor Jeremy Harris' eight-year term.
The administration and Council members clashed over efforts to trim the budget.
In the end, the committee trimmed about $5.7 million from the operating budget and about $38.8 million from the capital improvement budget after initially threatening to cut much more.
"We are going to be facing the biggest shortfall ever," said Councilman Gary Okino yesterday. The extra debt costs could lead to a $159 million operating budget shortfall next year and the possibility that property taxes may need to be raised by as much as 42 percent, Okino said.
Deputy Managing Director Malcolm Tom, Harris' former budget director, acknowledged that next year's shortfall could be record-breaking but said the city had dealt with similar dilemmas in the past. "It's presumptuous to say we've used up all our options," Tom said.
"All of this has been pushed off to the next administration," Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said, reminding administration officials that Harris is expected to resign in July to run for governor.
Harris administration officials stated repeatedly that they presented a balanced budget. They defended the transfer of $60 million to the general fund from the sewer fund in what Council members termed "a raid," and the use of other non-traditional sources of revenue.
Committee members spent yesterday hearing the requests of administration officials and the public -- inside the meeting room, out in the hallways and in their offices -- and then trying to figure out if they could find funding for them.
Nearly 200 people signed up to testify, and testimony lasted through the afternoon.
While indications late yesterday were that a majority of Budget Committee members and Council members were in favor of restoring funding for popular city programs such as Honolulu City Lights, Brunch on the Beach and Sunset on the Beach, Kobayashi insisted that the money come from other areas in the budget rather than the sewer-fund money.
"You know what we're doing, it's like looking through my car for quarters for parking," Councilman Duke Bainum said last night.
Kobayashi also cautioned colleagues about adding back more in capital improvement projects. "That's borrowed money that we have to pay with interest," she said.
Manny Menendez, Harris' director of economic development got into a yelling match with members over the trimming of his budget from $2.9 million to $479,000, which he called "irrational."
Councilman Romy Cachola questioned whether economic development is a city function and asked Menendez for an estimate of how much revenue his agency brought directly into city coffers. That touched off a fiery exchange that ended with Kobayashi banging the gavel for a recess and Menendez's microphone being cut in mid-sentence. Later, about $1 million was restored to Menendez's budget.
Managing Director Ben Lee later tangled verbally with Kobayashi over more than 10,000 letters telling residents about the Council's proposed cuts and asking that they testify before the Council yesterday. "I don't know why it's so difficult for our great city to encourage people to participate in the democratic process, whether they are for or against a budget item," he said.
"People have died for this right to participate."
But Kobayashi said she disagreed with the use of taxpayer money to send "such a biased letter taking a position against another part of government."
City & County of Honolulu
