As state House leaders finalized their version of the biennial budget last week, they announced they had appropriated $105 million to Hawaii’s labor department to tackle a massive problem: thousands of unpaid unemployment claims and a call center so overwhelmed that some residents have tried for months to get through to an agent without success.
It’s a major appropriation at a time when state lawmakers are having to make hard funding decisions as the coronavirus pandemic continues to depress state revenues. But when it comes to how the House came up with the $105 million figure and how the money would be specifically allocated, top lawmakers, as well as the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, won’t say, other than to provide a broad outline of funding areas.
The labor department has refused to provide the Honolulu Star-Advertiser with the budget proposal that was sent to Gov. David Ige and provided to state lawmakers. Lawmakers have also refused to provide the newspaper with those documents, claiming it wouldn’t serve the public interest since the budget is a work in progress.
“It’s not transparent right now because it’s still in negotiation, and once it’s finalized, then it becomes public record — and that’s the transparency,” said Rep. Richard Onishi (D, South
Hilo-Keaau-Honuapo), chairman of the House Labor and Tourism Committee.
Any information that executive agencies provide to the Legislature when seeking to use taxpayer money is public record, said Brian Black, executive director of the Civil Beat Law Center, which advocates for government transparency. The state Office of Information Practices “made that clear in a decision more than 10 years ago, which it reaffirmed more recently,” he said by email. “And when the City and County of
Honolulu attempted to
withhold internal budget memoranda because the budget decisions were not final, the Hawaii Supreme Court rejected that argument nearly three years ago. DLIR cannot withhold budget memoranda simply because the budget is not final.”
Former state Sen. Gary Hooser, who closely tracks the Legislature, said he was stunned to hear that the labor department and lawmakers wouldn’t provide the budget information. “‘Flabbergasted’ is too gentle a word,” he said.
“I was under the impression the budget-making process was supposed to be a public process. Isn’t this why they have hearings and make public various drafts and worksheets?” he said.
DLIR spokesman Bill
Kunstman said the $105 million budget proposal provided to the Legislature and discussed by the director during the Monday hearing was just a “rough draft” and that a finalized document could perhaps be provided in late April when the Legislature is close to finishing negotiations.
“This is a work-in-progress that changes daily and is now in its fourth iteration,” he said by email.
Asked on what basis DLIR was withholding the document given the state’s public-records law, Kunstman said he would have to get back to the newspaper on that question. He later provided slightly more detail about the budget proposal than previously released, saying funding would also go toward “communications” and a contract for claims adjudication that runs through September.
Onishi told the Star-Advertiser last week that the funds would go toward hiring more than 250 call center agents and claim adjudicators on top of the 175 for whom the labor department currently has funding. The budget for temporary staffing is over the course of 18 months, but the robust staffing levels can account for only a fraction of the $105 million proposed allocation.
Onishi said the money would also be used for setting up an appointment system for claimants needing to speak with an agent and continuing to host the call center at the Hawai‘i Convention Center, which has charged the state several million dollars for use of its facilities. Earlier this year those payments irked some state lawmakers who questioned why one state agency is charging another state agency anything at all during an emergency. The makeshift call center was set up in 2020 as the state’s unemployment rate soared and labor officials quickly became overwhelmed.
Onishi wouldn’t say how much of the $105 million was earmarked for the Hawai‘i Convention Center, which is run by the Hawaii Tourism Authority, the state agency charged with promoting tourism.
After the House approved the state budget last week, it sent it over to the Senate, where Sen. Sharon Moriwaki (D, Kakaako-McCully-Waikiki) also had questions about the $105 million House appropriation and obtained the budget breakdown from the labor department.
During a Senate Ways and Means Committee hearing on the state budget Monday, DLIR Director Anne
Perreira-Eustaquio told lawmakers she put the budget together for Ige as part of a proposal for how to use federal stimulus funds.
Neither Perreira-Eustaquio nor Moriwaki would share that document.
Moriwaki said that it wasn’t a public document. “We don’t have it officially,” she said.
The Star-Advertiser asked Ways and Means Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore-Mililani Mauka) for the document Monday, as well. He said that he would send it over if he could find it. “We don’t have anything to hide,” he said, but the budget document still hasn’t been provided.
