Some House members who voted in protest against the new state budget ended the legislative session with questions about how leaders of both chambers ended up granting Gov. Josh Green power to use $200 million — accompanied by “safeguards” — to spend any way he wants.
Hawaii governors typically ask for discretionary spending — a request that was denied by the Legislature last year for Green’s predecessor, former Gov. David Ige, according to state Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, chair of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee.
This year’s proposal from the House originally recommended that Green be given the ability to control $1 billion in discretionary spending for backlogged repair and maintenance of state facilities, especially for public schools, said Dela Cruz (D, Mililani-Wahiawa-Whitmore Village).
That much is agreed upon.
But Dela Cruz said the original plan would not have restricted Green to spend the money only on repairs and maintenance, meaning the governor could have used $1 billion for any state programs or projects.
“It was basically unlimited and without a reporting requirement,” Dela Cruz said.
Instead, the Senate and House ultimately voted to give Green the flexibility to spend $200 million as he sees fit, with a new caveat that he must inform the Legislature about his intentions 14 days ahead of any discretionary spending, and then report back what he actually did, said House Speaker Scott Saiki.
“It’s kind of historical,” Saiki said. “There are more safeguards.”
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Green’s staff did not immediately respond to a request for comment about any potential plans for whether — or how — Green plans to use the $200 million.
Asked whether Green might use some of the money to restore funding for the Hawaii Tourism Authority after the Legislature adjourned giving no new money for HTA, Saiki said: “I have no idea what the governor’s intentions are.”
There is no doubt that HTA remains in political purgatory following the conclusion of the 32nd Legislature last week. But in the aftermath, much remains unclear to some new and veteran members of the House who voted against the new state budget in an uncharacteristic end-of-session rebellion.
Key senators and state representatives could not even agree in the aftermath of the annual session, which opened Jan. 18, whether the budget calls for cuts to both the state Department of Education and University of Hawaii.
Exact details of the budget are not expected to be released for weeks, an unusually long delay.
Before the session ended, legislators had proposed that it would include general funds of $11.3 billion in fiscal year 2024 and $10.4 billion in fiscal year 2025; capital improvement funding of $2.9 billion in fiscal year 2024 and $1.3 billion in fiscal year 2025; and $40 million in grants-in-aid to nonprofit organizations.
The day after the session ended, Saiki told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the budget sent to Green includes $65 million less than what the governor proposed for DOE; Saiki and others did not provide specific estimates for how much the budget includes for UH overall.
Questions also persist in the House over exactly when the $200 million in discretionary spending for Green was agreed upon.
From the Senate’s perspective, Dela Cruz insisted that all legislators had access to the agreement reached by him and House representatives leading up to the joint House-Senate conference committee April 28.
“They (critical House members) can’t say it was dropped in at the last minute,” Dela Cruz said. “It’s a compromise. There’s no secret.”
House Finance Chair Kyle Yamashita (D, Pukalani-Makawao-Ulupalakua), who led much of the last-minute conference committee negotiations representing the House, did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment on what led to Green’s discretionary spending powers.
Rep. Amy Perruso, Democratic majority whip and chair of the House Higher Education and Technology Committee, was one of six Democrats who voted against the budget in protest on the last day of the session, along with two Republicans and eight others who voted for it “with reservations” — an unusually high number in the 51- member House that’s overwhelmingly dominated by Democrats.
Perruso (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore Village-Mokuleia), a member of House leadership, called the exact details of how the discretionary spending became reality “a mystery.”
She acknowledged that the proposal was included in the final draft of the conference committee’s multibillion-dollar budget. But Perruso, along with others, insisted the process was rushed in a last-minute flurry of negotiations and votes as the session was running out of time.
“The important question is when that was agreed upon,” she said. “I’m always concerned about lack of transparency and lack of accountability.”
First-term Rep. Elle Cochran (D, Waihee-Lahaina-Lahainaluna) served eight years on the Maui County Council and was stunned by the lack of transparency she found in the Legislature. Cochran said that as a Council member, she strictly followed the state’s “sunshine laws” intended to ensure government transparency.
In the Legislature, she said, “I never knew how this really operated. Now that I’m in and see it, it’s like ‘whoa.’”
Cochran served on the House Finance Committee this year and insisted she never heard any proposal to give Green $200 million in discretionary spending until other House members brought it up on the House floor on the last day while publicly declaring their opposition and concerns about the budget.
“I never heard about it until then,” she said. “We’re finalizing the budget and suddenly we heard about this pot (of money). It was blowing my mind. What the hell is this?”
Cochran represented the House on two conference committees and said, “It was never mentioned in any meeting or conference or hearings.”
She and other House members voted on a previous budget proposal April 28 that Cochran insisted lacked any plan for discretionary spending.
“Then something over the weekend happened,” she said. “I wasn’t there. Who knows? All of a sudden there’s a $200 million pot of money.”
Now that her first legislative session has ended, Cochran plans to tell young people on Maui about her experience and urge them to get involved in Hawaii politics and fight for transparency, because “one voice does matter.”
At the Legislature, Cochran said, “Everything is done behind closed doors. No one’s breaking the law because there is no law.” I don’t like it. It was crazy.
She said she plans to return for the 2024 legislative session and fight for reforms.
“Right now, people have no clue what goes on,” Cochran said. “I’m not one to just sit down and keep my mouth shut. I don’t forget where I come from and who I represent.”
