|
On Politics Richard Borreca |
What to do with Uncle
Sam’s ‘gift’ money?The answer to the old joke is "Run."
The question is: "What do you do when someone from the government says they have come to help you?"
John W. Snow, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, wrote all 50 state governors last week offering them $5 billion in free money.
After years of raging about "unfunded mandates," which are what governors and state lawmakers call directions from the federal government to do something without any extra money to do it, state leaders were actually being told the federal government was passing the money around.
The feds estimate that Hawaii will get $25 million this year and another $25 million next year. And Snow promises that the state should get its money "within two business days" after submitting a "properly executed state certification."
Hawaii's budget director, Georgina Kawamura, may work for a Republican, but she has been around long enough to know that few things in life are really free and that old joke might be true.
"We need to find out exactly how we would take in the money. Do we have to say specifically how we are going to use it? Do we have to specify the programs we would use it for?" Kawamura asks.
"What are the reporting requirements? It looks simple for the states to get the money, but what are the strings attached?" Kawamura wants to know.
The money comes from the federal tax cut bill passed last month and is meant to provide some aid to the nation's cash-strapped states.
In Hawaii, although our budget needs pale next to the huge deficits of many states, there are still more ideas about how to spend the money than save it.
Kawamura said she is thinking about using the money to restore the funding cuts made to human services.
The state also needs to figure out how to delay spending this fiscal year, which ends June 30, to comply with the Council on Revenues tax revenue reductions. An extra $25 million would go a long way to helping the state financial picture. Governor Lingle so far has been mum about how she plans to spend or save the money.
But the leaders of the Legislature quickly ticked off how they would like to use the money.
Speaker of the House Calvin Say ventured that the money should go to restore cuts in secondary education and higher education programs.
"Please note that we are not being obstructionists and we recognize that the governor has the ability to expend the money," Say said.
Both he and Senate President Robert Bunda noted that according to the state budget law, Lingle has 10 days to tell the Legislature how she is spending any extra money from the feds.
Bunda said the extra money could help fight Hawaii drug addiction problems.
In the end, the only problem with the federal money may not be the strings or the regulations but that the whole deal only lasts for two years.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Richard Borreca writes on politics every Sunday in the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached at 525-8630 or by e-mail at rborreca@starbulletin.com.