Gov. Neil Abercrombie has urged the federal government to take more of the financial responsibility for providing social services and education to Pacific migrants as costs to Hawaii have increased substantially over the past decade.

In a report Tuesday to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs, the governor said the cost to Hawaii for providing social services, education and other assistance to Pacific migrants was $114.9 million in 2010, up from $32 million in 2002.

Migrants from Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau are eligible for services under the Compact of Free Association with the United States, a mutual relationship that stemmed from U.S. defense interests in the Pacific, including Cold War nuclear testing.

"Simply put, the State of Hawaii cannot continue to absorb these costs which can only become greater in impact on our taxpayers," Abercrombie wrote in the report. "We cannot continue to slash programs and people in order to uphold a federally imposed mandate."

Census figures from 2008 show more than 12,200 Pacific migrants in Hawaii, but the governor and others suspect the actual number is significantly higher, based on the use of state services.

Nearly half of the state spending on Pacific migrants in 2010 — $52.1 million — was by the state Department of Human Services for financial and medical assistance and emergency housing and outreach to the homeless, according to the report.

The state Department of Education spent $55 million on education for more than 5,500 Pacific migrants.

Dr. Wilfred Alik, who works with the Micronesian Health Advisory Coalition, said the constant focus on the cost of services for Pacific migrants diminishes the many migrants who are working and contributing to island society.

Under the compact, which became federal law in 1986, the United States was supposed to provide economic assistance to the Pacific islands that would improve the standard of living and reduce the need for migration. The compact grew out of a trust relationship between the United States and the islands after World War II.

"Their primary mission as the trustee of these islands was to make them self-sufficient," Alik said of the United States. "It has been more than half a century, and these islands are not self-sufficient.

"So to me that’s the ultimate solution. If you want to keep these people from coming over here, then you’ve got to fulfill that responsibility, which has not been fulfilled."

Abercrombie asked the Office of Insular Affairs to support legislative changes that would allow Pacific migrants to directly receive federal Medicaid, welfare, food stamps and other benefits, which could reduce the burden on states that are fronting the costs.

Earlier this month U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, introduced a bill that would restore federal Medicaid eligibility for Pacific migrants that had been stripped in a 1996 federal welfare reform law.

"Since 1996, state and territorial governments have had no choice but to serve as the sole sources of funding to meet the social service and public health needs of our growing compact migrant population," Akaka said in a statement. "This is putting an additional strain on states and territories — especially Hawaii and Guam — at a time of severely constrained budgets.

"Hawaii has deep compassion and aloha for our brothers and sisters across the Pacific. I call on the federal government to make good on its commitments."

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, told reporters this week he is hopeful Akaka’s bill will be successful.

"We’ve had very serious discussions not only with our federal officials, but with officials of the compact states. They realize that it is not fair for Hawaii to pick up the load because most citizens of those islands stop over in Hawaii because of ethnic similarities, language similarities, and they feel at home climatically," the senator said. "So you won’t find too many of them in Arizona or California or Oregon or Washington. It’s here."

Inouye said the goal is for Hawaii to be fully compensated.

"We hope to get the full amount," he said.