If the University of Hawaii got help underwriting federal Title IX compliance, could it run an otherwise self-sustaining athletic program?

It is a decades-old question that has hovered over the debate about the rising tide of red ink.

Only now it is more than a what-if exercise — it is a central point of state House bill 539.

The measure, which cleared the House Higher Education Committee by an 8-0 vote Tuesday, is probably a longshot to be signed into law. But, at the very least, it serves to raise the level of discussion and bring needed focus to the still unresolved issue of how to fund a competitive athletic program.

UH is forecast to ring up a school-record $4.7 million deficit for the fiscal year that ends June 30 and there aren’t many life preservers being tossed its way.

Gov. David Ige, who did not reserve any nickels for athletics in his $9.8 million supplemental budget, has said it is up to the school to decide how it wants to prioritize and divide up the $428 million in general funds it receives from the state.

Meanwhile, the UH administration is asking the legislature for a $3 million sup- plement for athletics, saying it has no funds to spare.

Committee chairman Isaac Choy (D, Manoa-Moiliili), one of the measure’s sponsors, says the bill is “not a giveaway program. They (UH) have to do something on their part.”

UH has 21 intercollegiate teams — 13 Wahine, seven men and one co-ed — and, under the proposed legislation, the state would provide $3 million to assure Title IX equality in education compliance for the women’s teams and any coed teams that were less than 75 percent filled by men. The school would cover all scholarship expenses.

That is no small consideration since just two women’s programs, volleyball and basketball, charge admission and just one of them, volleyball, covers its expenses.

It would be up to the athletic department to underwrite the men’s teams by self-generated revenues and without any general fund assistance. Athletics would become a line item in the state budget “so we can keep an eye on it,” Choy said.

On the men’s side, four sports — football, basketball, volleyball and baseball — charge admission, though only football turns a profit based upon its revenue streams.

But, Choy points out, “let’s say that football had a really bad year (financially) and they can’t support the other men’s teams. Then, they have to make a cut (somewhere) in men’s expenditures.”

UH has expressed opposition to some elements of the bill, but in joint written testimony by Manoa Chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman and athletic director David Matlin, the school said portions of the bill “would help address the current low level of external support that UH athletics receives.”

Citing a 2014 report, they say UH, “receives one of the lowest levels of support in the nation at 33 percent of revenues. In comparison, the average for peers in the Big West is 67 percent and the Mountain West is 41 percent.”

House bill 539 isn’t the answer to UH’s problems, but is a start to asking the right questions.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.