Gov. David Ige announced Monday he will ask the Legislature to boost funding for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands by millions of dollars, representing the “highest level of funding” that the department has ever received from the state.

However, the funding proposal falls short of the approximately $28.4 million that DHHL says is needed to cover its operational and administrative costs and what a Circuit Court judge has indicated is constitutionally sufficient.

Ige told reporters gathered at a news conference in his office on the top floor of the state Capitol that he wants to increase DHHL’s funding for the current fiscal year by $7.5 million, raising the department’s total allocation in general funds to $17.1 million.

For the 2017 fiscal year, Ige said he is seeking $23.5 million in funding for the department — a significant increase from the $9.6 million he initially proposed.

The funding “would allow them to be positioned to provide better services for existing homesteaders and beneficiaries that are currently on the land,” said Ige, “but most importantly, allow us to move the programs forward to place more of the beneficiaries into homelands programs and get them on the land.”

The 2017 funding would also support 28 civil service positions, said Ige.

The announcement was greeted with mixed responses from state lawmakers, attorneys and DHHL officials.

Rep. Gene Ward, who has been critical of the state’s history of underfunding the department, walked out in the middle of the news conference in protest.

“I walked out because that was a very disappointing, overly hyped grandstanding, if you will, for Hawaiian Homes,” he told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Ward (R, Kalama Valley-Queen’s Gate-Hawaii Kai) said that the state is breaking the law by not funding DHHL to the tune of at least $28 million.

The Hawaii Constitution stipulates that the state must fund DHHL’s operating and administrative costs — placing it in a unique position among other departments. However, what that amount should be is the subject of debate and a long-standing court case known as Nelson v. Hawaiian Homes Commission.

In 2012 the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled in favor of Native Hawaiian beneficiaries, represented by the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., saying that the state had “failed by any reasonable measure, under the undisputed facts, to provide sufficient funding to DHHL.”

DHHL general fund appropriations have wavered over the years, according to court documents. They reached a high of $4.3 million for the 1992 fiscal year and fell to zero under former Gov. Linda Lingle.

The case was sent back to Circuit Court, where Judge Jeannette Castagnetti determined in November that the state needs to fund the department with at least $28.4 million for the 2016 fiscal year to be in compliance with the Constitution.

Attorneys with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. have said that the ruling implies that a similar amount is required in future years.

But the case took a peculiar twist in March when Castagnetti deleted the dollar figure from her ruling.

Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin had argued in a motion for reconsideration that the courts can’t instruct the state to allocate a certain amount of funding to a department because that discretion lies solely with the Legislature.

The tweaking of the order’s language has added a layer of legal ambiguity to the case.

Even though Castagnetti deleted the dollar amount from her ruling, she still maintained that there is “substantial evidence in the trial record to support the court’s factual findings” that $28 million or more is what is sufficient to fund DHHL.

“To be clear, the court is not ordering an appropriation. The court is, however, ordering that the state must comply with its constitutional duty to make sufficient sums available to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for its administrative and operating budget,” Castagnetti said, according to a transcript of the proceeding. “There is still time for the state to become in compliance during this fiscal year.”

The state has suggested that that deletion of the dollar figure bolsters its case that the courts can’t order the state to appropriate funds to DHHL. But attorneys for the plaintiffs say the change is immaterial.

“The governor’s support for more funding to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is good news,” David Kimo Frankel, a Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. attorney, said by email. “But the governor’s announcement violates the court’s determination that the Constitution requires that DHHL receive more than $28 million in general funds this fiscal year.”

Still, plaintiffs have filed a motion for reconsideration asking the judge to reinsert the dollar amount, Chin said during the news conference.

DHHL officials were conspicuously absent from Ige’s news conference.

In a statement issued later in the day, DHHL Director Jobie Masagatani said that the department would continue to seek the full $28 million.

“This is definitely a positive step in the right direction, and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands will capitalize on this momentum as we continue to work with the Legislature to close the gap before the end of this legislative session,” Masagatani said in a statement.

The funding requests will go to the Legislature for review.

Rep. Lynne DeCoite, who introduced a bill this session requiring the state to boost DHHL’s funding in response to the Nelson case, said in a news release that the House and Senate had agreed to the funding increases.

DeCoite (D, Lanai-Molokai-Paia-Hana) said it was a “huge step in the right direction for the beneficiaries moving forward.”

Leaders of the Senate and House money committees could not be reached for comment.

Ige stressed that his funding proposals were not made in response to the court case.

“I just want to be clear that this is not a settlement of the Nelson case,” he said. “This is the executive fulfilling its requirement to provide sufficient funds for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.”