$3M will ease travel costs for UH Manoa, Hilo

The mainland isn’t getting any closer for the University of Hawaii’s two athletic departments, but the state has taken a milestone step toward making travel a little more affordable.

With Gov. David Ige’s signature that passed House Bill 1700 into law last week, Manoa and Hilo stand to divide a $3 million appropriation aimed at softening the blow of being the only two schools that must fly to all their conference road games and take care of teams that come here.

How the money will be parceled out is up to UH President David Lassner, who is expected to forward a plan to the school’s Board of Regents in August, a spokesman said.

But the appropriation itself is a landmark acknowledgment by the legislature of UH’s burden.

As Sen. Jill Tokuda, Ways and Means chair, put it during hearings, “UH is in a very unique position where they pay for teams that actually come to Hawaii in the first place and also pay for their own travel out of state.”

Manoa athletic director David Matlin has said his department paid $3.8 million for road game travel in 2015, an average of $1.2 million above what its mainland peers paid.

Hilo AD Patrick Guillen said the Vulcans’ travel costs top $1 million.

As budget deficits have grown, that has been a message that UH has sought to sell at the Capitol. Last year’s appeals did not result in any supplemental funding.

This year the UH system had originally sought $3 million for Manoa and $560,000 for Hilo in requests made in January. Senate bill 83, which would have provided $3 million by deducting it from the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s share of the hotel tax died last month.

But in a legislative conference draft of the executive budget, $3 million in general funds was added to House Bill 1700.

Whatever share of it ends up going to Manoa will not retire a deficit expected to come in around $4 million, but will help address what Matlin has termed $5.2 million in costs “unique” to its geography.

The expectation is that, with the aid, the schools will have to increase their efforts to close the gap. “I think David (Matlin) would be the first to tell you — as I would, too — that we need to be a bit more creative in finding other sources of revenue, too,” Guillen said. “I mean it is easier said than done, but it is something we have to do.”