Leaders of the state House Finance Committee will experiment with zero-base budgeting, a concept that forces government spending to be justified annually, rather than presumed.
The strategy helps prioritize government spending by starting the budget discussion at zero. Seventeen states have tried some form of zero-base budgeting in recent years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, although no state uses it as a primary budgeting technique.
Rep. Sylvia Luke, chairwoman of the House Finance Committee, and Rep. Aaron Ling Johanson, the vice chairman, said they would test the idea with the Hawaii Community Development Authority, which is responsible for the redevelopment of Kakaako and Kalaeloa.
The HCDA, which is governed by an independent board, has an annual budget of about $1 million.
"This zero-base performance budgeting allows us to look at an agency or look at a department and go through the entire budget, as opposed to just looking at the add-ons," said Luke (D, Punchbowl-Pauoa-Nuuanu).
Johanson (R, Fort Shafter-Moanalua Gardens-Aliamanu) said they chose HCDA because of its relatively small size and similarity to a private-sector agency. The lessons learned could be applied to other state departments.
"This is our attempt to meaningfully reform government in a positive way," he said. "I think the easiest way to think about it is, More and better information, plus better legislative oversight, equals better government."
Luke, who took over the committee after a leadership shake-up early this year, has been open about challenging some of the assumptions lawmakers have had about the budget process.
The fact is that the budget debate usually revolves around the governor’s proposed spending increases, not the base budget. Almost all of the discussion is centered on the roughly $6 billion general-fund portion of the $12 billion annual spending blueprint.
In addition to the test on zero-base budgeting, the committee is working with the state auditor on reviews of several special funds.
Last session, Luke, Johanson and their colleagues on the committee confronted the Abercrombie administration on the more than 930 state positions that had been left vacant for more than a year. State departments had been using the money for budget flexibility.
House and Senate budget negotiators ultimately agreed to strip about 200 vacant positions from the budget.
