It is up to the University of Hawaii, not the state, to decide the future and funding of its financially challenged athletic program, Gov. David Ige said.

“It is a matter of setting priorities,” Ige told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Editorial Board Friday.

As a legislator, Ige said, “We granted the university the flexibility to decide what their priorities are within the funds that we give to them and I expect that they do that. If they decide that athletics should be a priority, I think they should decide that.”

But Ige said, “I would be happy if they want to give up fiscal flexibility and let me line item every single thing. I would love to do that. I would love to do that for the Department of Education as well.”

Ige’s comments — which came two days after House Higher Education Committee chairman Isaac Choy (D, Manoa) scolded school officials — leave athletics with diminishing funding options. UH President David Lassner has said the school is unable to increase its funding of athletics and the athletic department needs to seek increased community and fan support.

The UH system is budgeted to receive $428 million in general funds next year as part of the state’s biennial budget, less than 1 percent of which is scheduled to go directly to athletics.

Ige’s comments come as UH is asking the Legislature for $16.2 million in supplemental funding, including $3 million for athletics, $5 million for the Cancer Center and $3.5 million to boost research and innovation.

The 21-team UH athletic department operated at a net deficit of $4.2 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to an auditor’s report this month. The department is projecting as much as a $4.8 million deficit for the fiscal year that concludes June 30.

UH is not alone in doing its books in red ink. As of 2014, a USA Today survey said only 24 of 230 Division I public schools met NCAA self-sufficiency benchmarks.

A report to the UH Board of Regents last month by athletic director David Matlin estimated that the school has $5.2 million “unique” burden not faced by its mainland peers due to higher travel costs and expenses and lower levels of funding. Without them, Matlin maintained, UH would operate in the black.

An external audit of the athletic department noted, “The department’s financial condition continues to be a great concern to the department’s administration and the department will continue to require financial support from the university, the state, UH Foundation, students and other external entities to assist with its future fiscal position.”

But Ige said, “It is all about priorities, right? The Cancer Center needs $5 million. Is the Cancer Center, a nationally certified cancer center, more important to this community than athletics?”

Ige said, “I’m a pretty open guy and I’ve listened to many (requests for funding) and we make hard decisions. There are many, many, many requests for the resources that the state collects from taxpayers and part of my job is to decide what is more important. And, so, I believe the Cancer Center is much more important than athletics.”

Ige, who received two degrees from UH, said, “I attended football games for 30 years until I couldn’t afford it anymore. They raised the prices, so they priced me out. So, I understand it (athletics) is important. I think the university should take responsibility and make a decision about what is important. If they are unable to do that, I’ll take back all the authority to line item the budget. I’d do it in a second.”

Part of UH’s problem, Ige acknowledged, “… is that the emergence of the super conferences really created an uneven playing field. And I see how difficult it is for any school not in one of those super conferences to continue to compete. I don’t know what the future is. I do know that athletics is important to our community. We see so much excitement in our community with the sports teams, so there is definitely a role of athletics at the University of Hawaii. I just think that the landscape is changing so quickly that those who really are not in those power conferences are at a significant disadvantage fiscally. So, we definitely need to think about how we move forward.”