The Hawaii House of Representatives is planning to vote on the state’s $16 billion spending plan for 2017.
Representatives will decide Wednesday how much money they want to spend on everything from school air conditioning to hospitals.
House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke says she reduced Gov. David Ige’s operating budget proposal by about $47 million.
Even so, the House version of the budget includes plans to spend at least $300 million more than the state expects to reel in.
Luke says she supports Ige’s $30 million school cooling plan. But lawmakers haven’t yet decided how to fund the proposal.
The House budget doesn’t include $160 million to rebuild Hawaii State Hospital.
It does include $380,000 for sex abuse treatment services, a program that faced reduced funding during tight fiscal times.
City adds bike shelter to bus transit center
Bicyclists who ride TheBus can now secure their bikes in the new parking shelter at the Middle Street Transit Center.
The shelter, near the Transit Center’s boarding platform, provides secure and weather-protected storage for 16 bicycles. Access to the shelter is currently available from the on-site security guard at the adjacent transit center platform.
The city Department of Transportation Services plans to install a smart-card locking system later this year. The shelter cost $61,900 to build.
“The new bicycle parking shelter is part of the city’s plan to integrate bicycle use with public transit,” said Mayor Kirk Caldwell in a statement Friday. “Bicycle riders can complete their commute knowing that their bike is secure and out of the elements.”
All of the city’s 519 fixed-route buses have bicycle racks.
Most of U.S. mainland springs forward
Most of the U.S. mainland sprung forward to Daylight Savings Time early today.
There is now a three-hour difference between Hawaii and the West Coast and a six-hour difference between Hawaii and the East Coast.
There is no time change in Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.
Trump wins 11 of state GOP’s 19 delegates
Donald Trump has won the lion’s share of Hawaii’s Republican delegates.
The Hawaii Republican Party announced the delegate allocation Friday based on the percentage of votes each candidate received in Tuesday’s caucuses.
Trump handily won the vote and received 11 of the state’s 19 delegates. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas came in second, and received seven delegates. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio got one delegate.
Hawaii will send 19 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this summer to select the party’s presidential nominee.
The presidential caucus Tuesday drew 15,672 voters. That surpasses 2012, when 10,228 GOP voters caucused.
State GOP chairman Fritz Rohlfing says the turnout shows Americans want to head in a new direction.
TMT lease sent back to agency
The proposed Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea was dealt another apparent setback on Friday when Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura remanded a sublease between TMT and the University of Hawaii-Hilo back to the state Board of Land and Natural Resources for reconsideration.
The sublease agreement, entered in 2014, covered 6 acres of undeveloped land below the summit for 20 years. Annual rent for the land was to have started at $300,000, eventually reaching $1 million.
Plaintiff E. Kalani Flores, a Hawaii Community College professor, argued that the BLNR failed to follow proper protocols and approved the agreement in violation of state law, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported.
Flores argued that the sublease should have been subject to a contested case hearing and a cultural impact analysis. He also took issue with the participation of board member Rob Pacheco in the vote given Pacheco’s involvement with a commercial tour service on the mountain.
Deputy Attorney General Julie China argued that a contested case hearing is not required for a sublease and that it was not necessary for Pacheco to recuse himself.
Nakamura’s decision did not invalidate the sublease but does require the board to reconsider its approval.
The decision comes three months after the state Supreme Court overturned the project’s Conservation District use permit.
Mauna Kea is considered an ideal site for the $1.4 billion TMT but executives said in February that they are exploring other potential sites if the state cannot assure that a permit can be secured by September 2017, thereby allowing construction to begin by 2018.
