A state House committee has raised questions about a request by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for $4.4 million in fiscal year 2004, up $1.9 million from this year's funding. Lawmakers balk at
hiking OHA budgetThe agency insists it requires
more money to pay for personnelBy Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.comHouse Water, Land and Hawaiian Affairs Chairman Ezra Kanoho said yesterday that it could appear "greedy" for OHA to seek the increase to cover personnel costs next year while state lawmakers are working to restore more than $10 million in interim ceded-land revenue promised to OHA.
Also, Gov. Linda Lingle has imposed a 5 percent cut on discretionary spending in all state departments for the next two fiscal years and an increase in OHA's budget would raise questions.
"We certainly don't want any negative reaction," said Kanoho (D, Lihue).
OHA Administrator Clyde Namuo explained to the panel yesterday that OHA needs more funding if it is to fulfill its constitutional and statutory mandates of helping all people of Hawaiian ancestry.
By law, OHA's trust fund, generated from ceded-land revenue (funds generated from former monarchy lands), can only help Hawaiians with more than 50 percent Hawaiian ancestry. OHA seeks annual general-fund money from the state Legislature to help those with less native blood.
Namuo said the $4.4 million sought from the state would cover 100 percent of OHA's personnel costs except for those related to its board of trustees, which OHA's trust fund would cover. That trust fund is overseen by OHA's board of trustees and had a balance of about $268 million late last month.
"As a state agency, OHA strongly believes that the funding of its personnel requirements to run the agency should be treated no differently than that of any other state agency," he said.
Namuo added OHA would continue to split funding with the state for four of its popular programs that better the conditions of Hawaiians: Alu Like Inc., which provides business services to Hawaiians; Na Pua No'eau, a program for gifted and talented Hawaiian children; the Hawaiian Diet, an offshoot of the Waianae Diet developed by Dr. Terry Shintani; and the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., where the funding helps Hawaiian families reclaim ancestral lands.
Even so, Kanoho recommended the OHA budget bill be amended to remove the increases and to have the funding reflect the same level as this year.
Senate Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Chairwoman Colleen Hanabusa has said that if OHA wants an increase in its general-fund budget, it must show how its programs are helping Hawaiians.
Meanwhile, a bill that sets OHA interim ceded-land revenue for the next two years at $10 million each has been forward to the House Finance Committee for consideration.
A September 2001 Hawaii Supreme Court ruling invalidated a 1990 state law that defined these ceded-land payments. OHA has not received any ceded-land revenue from the state, which it estimates at about $2 million a quarter, for the past 18 months.
In lieu of a resolution to the law's invalidation this year, lawmakers may establish a legislative panel to get input from the entire Hawaiian community on a new law that gives OHA a share of the state's revenue from ceded or public-trust lands.
OHA has relied on its trust fund to make up shortfalls, but trustees are in a bind because of the trust's spending cap and the decline in the stock market.