One-half of 1 percent of all city general fund collections are set aside for Oahu nonprofit groups each year under a Honolulu City Charter amendment approved by voters in 2012.

Charitable agencies have netted some $6 million annually in so-called “grants in aid” as a result of the policy.

But should the city provide even more taxpayer dollars to nonprofits from the general fund? Council leaders say yes. Mayor Kirk Caldwell says no.

It’s been a tug of war each year since the grants-in-aid amendment was approved, and this year is no different.

Caldwell has until today to act on Bill 14, the city’s $2.33 billion operating budget for fiscal 2017. He has allowed the budget to become law without his signature each of the past two years, and cited the Council add-ons as among the reasons he’s refused to sign the budgets.

Council members have tacked on millions of dollars annually for specific nonprofit causes. Council Chairman Ernie Martin says Oahu’s nonprofit agencies badly need whatever funding they can scrape together and that the city can provide some money without affecting city priorities.

But Caldwell has refused to release the money for nearly all of the Council add-ons for nonprofits over the past few years. His argument is that Council members have bypassed a vetting system established with an advisory commission, and instead arbitrarily showered their favorite groups with money that should be going to core city services like police and road repaving.

The seven-member Grants in Aid Advisory Commission received 98 applications and, after several months of vetting, recommended $5.93 million be doled out to 56 federally exempt nonprofits based on a detailed scoring system of those groups that submitted applications. By the time the $2.33 billion operating budget for the fiscal 2017 budget year was approved June 1, 58 nonprofits were to get $6.19 million from the fund, with the slight increase due to revised revenue estimates and other adjustments.

The groups represent a broad spectrum of Oahu’s nonprofits, including the Blood Bank of Hawaii, the Boys Scouts of America Aloha Council, Guide Dogs of Hawaii, the Manoa Heritage Center, Teach for America and Special Olympics Hawaii, all of which got the allowable maximum of $125,000.

Additionally, however, the operating budget passed by the Council channeled $2.35 million in general fund money into an Office of Grant Management pot for 19 additional organizations and one nonprofit — the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii — which had already been awarded funding under the formal grants-in-aid method.

Five of the 20 agencies on the add-on list never submitted applications to the Grants in Aid Advisory Committee: CrimeStoppers Honolulu Inc. ($50,000), Friends of the Future ($124,992), the Kalihi Community Center ($50,000), the Pa‘i Foundation ($250,000) and the University of Hawaii Foundation ($150,000). The UH Foundation money is to go to “support disadvantaged athletes,” according to a description filed by Martin’s office, which requested the add-on.

If Caldwell sticks to past practice, few if any of those add-on funds will be released.

In the current 2016 budget year, which ends June 30, the Council added $2.16 million for 23 agencies, in addition to the $6.1 million through the standard grant-in-aid process. The administration last week said that of the Council add-ons, it has released only $100,000 — proposed for the group Adult Friends for Youth.

Adult Friends for Youth was one of only two agencies on the Council add-on list that received no funding through the standard grants-in-aid fund.

The other 21 agencies on the Council add-on list were among the 48 nonprofits that the advisory commission recommended receive a total of $6.07 million, funds that Caldwell released.

For instance, the Hawaii Public Television Foundation received $150,000 but not an additional $97,500 in the Council add-on list.

“We are about core services,” Caldwell told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last month when asked about his refusal to fund most Council-added nonprofit grants. “We’re about roads; we’re about garbage; we’re about cutting the grass in parks and making sure that you get water and that your sewage goes away. After we do that, well, we can worry about the other things, but we have so many other basic needs to address.”

But both Martin and Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said the add-ons are justified.

“It’s a philosophical difference,” Martin said. “I think the position of the legislative branch has been that we choose to go beyond (the grant-in-aid fund) to continue to support our nonprofit communities … which some of the members who have added projects believe are vital to serving their constituency.”

Martin said the disagreement is no different from their opposing views on Caldwell’s controversial bike lanes, which have drawn the ire of Council members and a segment of Oahu residents.

He reiterated that he wrote the Charter amendment calling for a percentage of general funds to go into a grants-in-aid pot. The fund was meant to be a minimum amount for nonprofits each year, not a ceiling, he said.

Council members individually consider requests made by nonprofit agencies. “If they do feel that it’s something that benefits our constituency, then we do submit an amendment for consideration by the Budget Committee, and if the committee agrees, then that is included in the overall city budget,” Martin said, noting that not all his recommendations for grant add-ons make it into the budget.

Martin insisted that nonprofit funding should not and does not affect funding for core city services. “That’s the primary and foremost consideration for the legislative branch, to ensure that those essential city services (are provided),” he said. Agencies are funded “if there is a cushion that can be dedicated to the nonprofit community … primarily for the less fortunate members of our community,” he said.

Lisa Maruyama, president and chief executive officer of the Hawaii Association of Nonprofit Organizations, said regardless of what method is used by the city to offer money to nonprofits, the need is definitely there.

“Demand is up for services and funding is down,” Maruyama said, “and so nonprofits are continually being asked to do more for less.”