UH budget cuts are
a source of confusion

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By Bruce Dunford
Associated Press

A parade of University of Hawaii officials went before the House Finance Committee yesterday, taking turns insisting the institution can take no more budget cuts.

However, they apparently missed the assignment, which was to say just where the cuts would be made.

The briefing ended in confusion with an exchange involving committee Chairman Dwight Takamine, state Budget Director Georgina Kawamura and Deane Neubauer, UH interim vice president for academic affairs.

"Listening to the past almost three hours of testimony, I think it was clear to every member of this committee what a serious impact these budget cuts would have," said Takamine (D, Hawi-Hilo). "It's somewhat disturbing. At this point, from what we're hearing, there seems to have been possibly ... some gap in communication."

Kawamura said she had "a lot of concerns after hearing everything that was said today, but absent any details and any conversation between Jan. 17 and today, we'd want to go through those details."

Adding to Takamine's confusion was Kawamura's statement that in response to a request from the university's chief financial officer on Wednesday, the administration is willing to renegotiate the cuts assigned to the university.

"If you're going to reopen negotiations with the university, would that also apply to the Department of Education, and if so, if those adjustments get made, then what approach is the administration planning to use to result in a balanced financial plan?" Takamine asked Kawamura.

Kawamura said the administration is assuming the Board of Education would approve the cuts assigned to the DOE, but with the university there have been no discussions while awaiting details on the $6.9 million-a-year restrictions.

"So we need to go back to the table then, and only then. We can't start any discussions until we see those details to bring about, hopefully, some form of compromise," she said.

That seemed to surprise Neubauer.

"It was the full and received impression of the University of Hawaii that we were to comply with the cuts and they were not negotiable," he said. "Now if there's a misunderstanding of that or we have been naive in that, we stand rebuked for that, but we had sought ... to accept the statement of (Kawamura) and accept her understanding that this was a directive that we were to accept a 5 percent cut."

Gov. Linda Lingle, as part of her effort to balance the state budget, assigned the university system annual cuts of $6.9 million in noninstructional costs from the current budget and the budget proposal drafted by the Cayetano administration.

In scheduling the briefing, Takamine acknowledged that the final cuts would have to be decided by the Board of Regents, which does not meet until late this month, but asked the UH administration to provide preliminary information on the cuts.

"The University of Hawaii budget has been seriously and drastically cut over the past 19 months. And the current executive budget seeks to make continued and deeper cuts into our current service base budget," Neubauer said in leading off his team of top officials from the various segments of the university system.

"These cuts are fundamentally damaging to the university, and our desire today is to help you understand just how they will impact students, faculty and the citizens of Hawaii."