When UH asks for money, Legislature say no, no, no

Sometimes life imitates art and sometimes it imitates stupid old movies.

For instance, after reading Star-Advertiser reporter Nanea Kalani’s story on the University of Hawaii’s plan to ask next year’s state Legislature for extra funds to pay for money owed professors, all I could hear was Chris Tucker screaming at Jackie Chan in "Rush Hour."

"Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?"

The idea offered by new interim UH President David Lassner is that UH will float its own revenue bonds to pay for building repair and the Legislature, via the taxpayers, will pay the profs.

UH buildings, especially at the Manoa campus, are in terrible shape. Estimates now put the cost for fixing two decades of neglect at nearly half a billion dollars, $487 million.

The issue of delayed repair and maintenance has already caused the Legislature to halt the hoped-for construction of the University of Hawaii at Hilo’s Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy.

The Legislature earlier this year said, "Fix what you have before you build something new."

Still, Lassner wants the Legislature to find $14 million to cover restorations to faculty salaries due next year as part of its six-year contract with the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly faculty union.

Paying the money owed profs "created huge pressure on our use of tuition funds because that was an unexpected — to us — requirement that we had been thinking that those funds would be available," Lassner told the Star-Advertiser.

"And so what we’re really suggesting is that if the Legislature can help us with the UHPA funds, then that will enable us to make the investment of tuition dollars to catch up with the backlog."

This year, the Legislature told UH, "No."

That is not a legislative inconsistency, because last year the Legislature said "No." The Legislature said it in 2010 and in 2011.

UH agreed to the six-year deal with the faculty union just before the Legislature closed in 2010, but the conference committee report on the budget noted that the lawmakers were "concerned with the University’s faculty payroll increase for fiscal years 2013-2015."

"The agreement increases total state payroll costs by $45.6 million over fiscal years 2013-2015. It should be noted that your Committee on Conference believes the University should be fully responsible for funding these pay increases without the use of general funds (taxpayer’s money), especially in this time of great economic stress," said the Legislature.

By 2011, the budget-writing lawmakers had more time to explain to UH.

"The negotiated collective bargaining agreement may be overly generous, given the larger fiscal context and the State’s need to achieve labor savings," legislators said in their conference committee report.

Particularly troubling was the deal that professors would take a pay cut, but in 2011 they would get the money back.

"Your Committee on Conference believes the university is fully responsible for funding these costs," said the report.

"As the Twenty-fifth Legislature determined, your Committee on Conference finds that the University of Hawaii should not request that cost items associated with its six-year collective bargaining contract with UHPA be supported by general funds."

That is how the Legislature says: "No, no, and no, and don’t ask us again."

The university asked for, and via a constitutional amendment, was granted autonomy — and with it came the power to sell revenue bonds and adjust student tuition and dream up whatever fees it wanted to in order to pay for the institution’s operation.

Now it just has to understand the words coming out of the Legislature’s mouth.

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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.