Maui lawmakers warn of severe cuts in programs if hurricane fund spared

The Maui News
April 26, 2002

By MARK ADAMS
Staff Writer

HONOLULU — As the Legislature moved into the final hours of deliberations on the state budget for the coming fiscal year Thursday, several Maui lawmakers said if more money isn’t taken from the Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund, the state is looking at a disaster.

Cuts are planned in areas that include the A-Plus after-school child care program, English as a Second Language and Hawaiian language immersion programs, funding for Neighbor Island counselors in the Office of Veterans Services and state libraries.

A majority of state senators who have pledged to leave the $213 million HHRF largely intact have taken a position that is harming island residents, state Sen. Jan Yagi Buen said Thursday.

“I’m really frustrated that they’ve locked themselves in that way,” Buen said. “People need to understand these are major cuts — but what are we going to do?”

During a late-night session Thursday, the conference committee responded to one issue, restoring $11 million to the Department of Public Safety after Gov. Ben Cayetano assailed them, calling the cuts affecting prisons “unacceptable.” 

Cayetano had commented after Public Safety Director Ted Sakai warned the conference committee that one in 10 state prison inmates would have to be released if the $11 million cut remained in the final supplemental budget bill. 

The cuts would have left the state unable to pay for 535 of the 1,200 inmates now held in private Mainland prisons and 80 beds it uses at the new Federal Detention Center near the Honolulu Airport, Sakai said. 

‘‘We wouldn’t have any place to hold them in Hawaii and we would have to release a lot of inmates, and because we don’t have the (drug) treatment money we’d have to release them without any kind of programs,’’ he said. 

House Finance Chairman Dwight Takamine had said the the funds could be restored in the final budget agreement before the committee reconvened at 9 p.m. Thursday. 

The prison and drug treatment program money was put back as conferees went through the budget line-by-line a final time after agreeing to take $29 million in ‘‘investment earnings’’ from the $213 million hurricane relief fund. 

Pending in the committee were proposals to take up to $43 million from the fund and from the state’s rainy day fund to help offset the more than $300 million revenue shortfall. 

The conferees agreed to take $29 million in interest income from the hurricane fund while leaving the principal intact, although 16 senators had signed a pledge not to touch the fund. 

Buen said there is an additional $20 million in interest still untouched that could go a long way toward paying for threatened programs.

Conferees were still working late Thursday on the bill that needs to be finalized today to meet a deadline that will allow the Legislature to take final votes next week and adjourn on time next Thursday.

Buen is not alone in her feeling that additional money needs to be taken from the hurricane relief fund.

To stave off a revenue shortfall, lawmakers have practiced creative accounting that includes taking $140 million from special funds, borrowing $22 million from the state highway fund that will be replaced with settlement money from an antitrust suit against oil companies, and raising $16 million by 2004 through increasing the tax on cigarettes. 

Another proposal described by Democratic leaders was to take $15 million from the state’s $36.5 million rainy day fund, but that would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate and in the 51-member House where 19 Republicans would have the power to block it. 

All of that still leaves a projected $132 million in cuts to the budget, with Buen and other lawmakers still hoping some of those programs can be restored — if more funding can be found. 

Maui Sen. J. Kalani English also thinks the Legislature should be taking additional money from the hurricane relief fund.

Homeowners who paid into the fund after Hurricane Iniki caused private insurers to bail out of the market got what they paid for, Buen and English said. The homeowners were insured for the periods covered by their premiums, just like when a motorist buys auto insurance.

If a motorist doesn’t get into an accident, he or she does not expect to get the money spent on the premium returned, they said.

Buen said pressure put on lawmakers to leave the fund alone is having an effect in an election year.

“They’re afraid of not being re-elected,” she said of her colleagues.

English also said the money should be used.

“The argument that they (homeowners) should get the money back is illogical and wrong,” English said. “I’ve always been open to using some of the money to balance the budget.”

The 16 senators who signed a letter pledging to leave the HHRF alone did a disservice to their constituents, English said. He also noted that not all 25 senators were given a chance to sign or reject the pledge, saying he was never approached.

“It doesn’t fulfill their role as public servants,” English said. “They need to make the right decision for their constituents.”

Buen said other budget appropriations, like an $11 million allocation to complete an irrigation system for Upcountry farmers and money to fight invasive species and conduct agricultural research, are also threatened.

English said that as of Thursday afternoon, the Legislature also had not addressed operational funding for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which he estimated at $17 million.

English did say that money earmarked for extending the hours of the Kula ambulance service was in the budget as of Thursday, an item that both Buen and state Rep. Kika Bukoski had been worried about.

Bukoski said Thursday he is opposed to using the hurricane fund money, and thinks it should be left intact in the event of future disasters.

But Bukoski said if the fund is dissolved, the money should go to the state’s general fund as provided in the law that created it.

Sen. Avery Chumbley is one of those who wants the fund left alone, except for the $29 million in interest income being used.

He said the money should remain available — not to pay for hurricane damages, a misconception that many have, but to purchase additional reinsurance to keep home mortgages solvent in the event that private hurricane insurance again becomes unavailable.

In criticizing legislators over cuts to the Department of Public Safety, Cayetano said the administration’s bill mandating drug treatment instead of prison time for first-time nonviolent offenders needs to pass and adequate funding for the prisons restored. The bill remained before a House-Senate conference committee on Thursday. 

Sakai said the proposed budget cuts would have eliminated all drug treatment for inmates about to be released and the Health Department’s $2.2 million program for parolees and probationers. 

‘‘At a time when we need to be increasing our drug treatment programs, we find ourselves in a position of having them reduced dramatically,’’ he said. ‘‘If these funds aren’t restored, the result will be to speed up the revolving door to prison, which means more crime and even greater costs to society.’’ 

Budget deliberations continue today at the Capitol. Bills that have money attached to them have to be out of conference committee and decked today so final votes can be taken next week.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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