Senate mistakenly proposes $51 billion for University of Hawaii community colleges

State senators must really like the University of Hawaii community college system — and not so much UH’s four-year campuses — because the latest budget proposal calls for giving the smaller campuses a whopping $51 billion for the next fiscal year.

That’s billion with a “b,” as in “$51,450,000,000” specifically for UH’s seven community colleges, according to the latest version of House Bill 1600, which moved out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Friday.

State Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, committee chairman, said senators realized the amount was a mistake but could not fix it in time for a decking deadline of midnight Thursday.

“It should be $51 million, not $51 billion,” he told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “Knock off the last three zeroes.”

Dela Cruz said senators will consider a floor amendment today to fix the $51 billion figure, along with other items in HB 1600 that could not be corrected in time.

Curiously, the latest budget bill that passed out of the Ways and Means Committee has no money for UH’s three four-year universities at Manoa, Hilo and West Oahu.

Although the community college budget proposal is unusually high, Dela Cruz said Manoa, Hilo and West Oahu can dip into the UH system budget for their funding.

The Senate budget proposal includes an additional $88 million for unspecified community college projects. Dela Cruz said plans for the $88 million will be unveiled this week.

The Senate version also calls for an additional $1.76 million to hire nursing instructors at UH community colleges and the Manoa and Hilo campuses.

For perspective, the entire UH system runs on an annual budget of about $1 billion, with half typically coming from the state general fund and half from tuition.

The entire community college system operates on an annual budget of about $225 million.

The House version of the state budget bill included just $4.6 million to restore cuts at UH’s seven community college campuses prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is identical to the budget requests by the UH Board of Regents and Gov. David Ige.

The economy continues to improve faster than forecast following two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, which devastated Hawaii’s tourism-reliant economy.

But to put the Senate’s $51.5 billion budget mistake for UH community colleges into context:

>> Ige has gotten pushback in the Legislature for his proposal to pump $1 billion into the state “rainy day fund” to brace against a future economic disaster.

>> A bill continues to advance in the Legislature that would provide the greatest infusion of funds — $600 million — to help clear the backlog of Hawaiian home lands beneficiaries.

>> Dela Cruz and his House counterpart, Sylvia Luke, chair of the House Finance Committee, on Wednesday proposed tax rebates totaling about $250 million: $100 for taxpayers and their dependents who earn $100,000 or more, and $300 rebates for taxpayers and dependents who earn less than $100,000.