In their last act under an extended deadline, state lawmakers agreed Monday to provide $11.6 million for social service programs, restoring some of the money that had been cut during the recession.
The grants would go to organizations such as Wahiawa General Hospital, the Kalihi-Palama Health Center, the Domestic Violence Action Center and the Hawaii Meth Project. Social service advocates also successfully obtained $4.9 million through a separate bill that would help seniors through programs such as Kupuna Care.
The new money is in addition to the funds included in the state budget.
"As is the case historically, social services and grants-in-aid are always last on the list," said Alex Santiago, executive director of PHOCUSED, a social service advocacy group. "We would love to have seen a lot of these — what we consider to be core programs — funded early on."
Santiago said he felt the money was a priority.
"The restoration of social services has begun," he said. "We’re not done yet. We still have a lot to make up for all that was cut over the last couple of years."
Lawmakers also agreed on $1 million for ambulance service on the Leeward coast in response to the shutdown of Hawaii Medical Center-West in Ewa Beach and $80 million in special-purpose revenue bonds for St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii, which controlled the bankrupt HMC hospitals in Ewa Beach and Liliha and is searching for possible buyers.
Lawmakers agreed to increase by $2 million the amount the Hawaii Tourism Authority receives from hotel room taxes to help attract international visitors through visa programs and other incentives.
State House and Senate leaders had extended a Friday deadline to have bills ready for final votes until Monday because of the delay in approving the state budget. Final votes are scheduled for today and Thursday, the last day of session.
Kalbert Young, the state’s budget director, said the Abercrombie administration is disappointed lawmakers opted not to replenish the state’s hurricane relief and rainy day funds, which had been drained over the past few years to deal with teacher furloughs, social service needs and budget shortfalls. The administration had wanted lawmakers to use some of the proceeds from a record bond sale in November to start to replace the emergency funds.
Young said credit-rating agencies will likely notice the state’s low cash reserves when the state attempts to sell bonds. Lawmakers have said they intend to replenish the emergency funds, but chose to wait, a decision influenced in part by a desire to restore some of the social service funds.
"It’s very disappointing that we’re not going to be able to demonstrate financial fortitude," Young said.
After an exhausting weekend — negotiators did not settle on a budget and capital improvement project outlay until 3 a.m. Saturday — several lawmakers shared private frustration about the extended deadline and worried whether they had set a bad precedent.
House and Senate leaders have pushed internal deadlines before and have even extended the session under extraordinary circumstances. But the disagreement this session over state construction spending was not extraordinary from a public policy or emergency standpoint, and unfolded more as a test of control between the House and Senate.
Internal deadlines provide some order in a session. But negotiators now have an example that they can take talks past the brink on bills as critical as the budget. Last session, in the other extreme, the Senate enforced an early evening procedural deadline when the traditional practice was to negotiate until midnight, a move that left dozens of bills on the table.
Senators, who tried to enforce the early evening deadline again this year, have described their approach as an attempt to bring more order and transparency to the conference committee process and prevent the late-night, pressure-filled trade-offs with the House.
"You want a certain amount of flexibility, and yet I think people want certainty as to what’s going to happen," said Sen. Brian Taniguchi (D, Moiliili-Manoa), a former Senate Ways and Means Committee chairman, adding that the past two sessions were unusual.
Rep. Joseph Souki (D, Waihee-Wailuku), a former House speaker, credited House and Senate leaders for working into the weekend and on Monday, avoiding the need to extend the 60-day session past Thursday. "In that respect I thought the members and the leadership did a very good job in managing the last days of the session," he said.
Souki recalled years when governors would extend the session in hourly increments to provide negotiators more time.
"We’ve got to remember that they are strictly internal guidelines subject to change," he said of Friday’s deadline. "The main thing is the last day of the session."
Others, though, said privately that negotiations on the budget and capital improvement project outlay should never have gone into the wee hours Saturday.
Several lawmakers also believed that a limited number of key bills that were waiting on the budget would be eligible for the extended deadline on Monday, not the 47 bills that ultimately made the list.
House and Senate leaders also agreed to briefly extend the deadline on Monday morning for the social services bill.
"I don’t think it should ever happen again," said Senate Vice President Donna Mercado Kim (D, Kalihi Valley-Halawa).
