Cutting $1.1 billion from the state budget over the next two fiscal years was not “hard” because $500 million was intended for the state’s rainy day fund and most of the rest is from projects that were not fully vetted or could not spend all of the money they were budgeted next year, Gov. Josh Green told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program on Friday.

“None of it was hard,” Green said. “… People aren’t going to feel those cuts almost at all because we already have money available for the projects that are proposed. … Honestly, no one’s going to be able to tell the difference at all.”

Green cut $554.7 million in fiscal year 2024, which begins July 1, and $533 million in fiscal year 2025.

One of the biggest was to eliminate $72 million for a controversial First Responder Technology Campus in Mililani.

State Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz chairs the Senate Ways and Means Committee and backed the campus plan. But after meeting with Green last weekend for breakfast — Dela Cruz had eggs and Green had saimin, Green told “Spotlight” — Dela Cruz (D, Mililani-­Wahiawa-Whitmore Village) told the Star-Advertiser previously that he understands Green’s cuts.

Green is required by the state Constitution to produce a balanced budget and had no alternative but to cut spending, Dela Cruz previously told the Star- Advertiser.

Part of the funding would replace the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency’s dilapidated headquarters and for HI-EMA to improve cybersecurity, Green said.

But there were few other specifics for the first responder campus and Green worried the project could lead to unknown costs.

“We have to do it sensibly with complete understanding of what our costs are going to be long term,” Green said. “We didn’t have that so we can pause there and not be really affecting any of our people. That’s another thing that was not difficult to do.”

In March, the Council on Revenues projected that state revenue would grow 2%, with a surplus of $423 million by the end of the 2024 fiscal year and $426 million in fiscal year 2025.

By May, the Council forecast a net loss of 1%.

The Legislature passed the state budget before the latest Council on Revenues forecast, Green said.

With his proposed cuts, he said, “we’re solid again.”

“A lot of the decisions that were made on the budget happened in the wee hours of the night and that wasn’t OK with a lot of people,” Green said. “And some of those projects didn’t have details going forward in years two, three, four, five. … I made promises to people — the people of Hawaii — to make sure that we focused on housing, homelessness, affordability, education, climate. I did not make any promises about specific projects in certain areas of the state.”

Green said he still supports more affordable housing to retain and attract teachers, but cut $120 million from the budgeted $170 million, which still leaves $50 million for next year.

“There isn’t a plan yet,” he said. “… Spending $50 million next year is going to be no easy feat on that project.”

Green also cut $88.8 million out of $93.8 million budgeted for water/irrigation infrastructure and irrigation system management; eliminated $25 million of $50 million proposed for renovations and improvements to state parks; and removed $61 million out of a proposed $86 million for design and construction of transit-­oriented development in the Iwilei-­Kapalama area.

Asked about his plans to continue to expand the homeless, tiny home “kauhale” concept, Green said that he loves the new medical respite kauhale off of Punchbowl Street in between The Queen’s Medical Center and the Washington Place governor’s mansion. He said he believes it is the first of its kind in the nation.

An average of eight newly discharged homeless hospital patients per day have used the tiny homes for post-hospital treatment for medical issues that do not require hospitalization but still leave them medically vulnerable for life on the street.

The next two kauhale are planned for Middle Street near Sand Island and another in Hilo aimed at homeless people addicted to drugs to get them sober, for up to three months of treatment, Green said.

Other kauhale are planned for Nanakuli and on the grounds of the State Hospital in Kaneohe to provide mental health treatment, using social workers and nurse practitioners, Green said.

“We’re aggressively moving on this,” Green said. “This project is going to go national.”

Each kauhale will be based on the specific needs of individual communities dealing with homelessness, Green said.

“We don’t ever tell a community what they have to do,” he said. “Over time it’ll be ‘Yes in my backyard.’”