Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 5, 1 May 2016 — Funding increase proposed for DHHL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Funding increase proposed for DHHL

ByTreenaShapiro The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands will likely see a funding increase next fiscal year, but whether it's enough to comply with a November court order has yet to be determined. Last November, Judge Jeanette Castagnetti ordered the state

Legislature to provide sufficient funding to DHHL, as mandated by the state constitution. In March, she amended the court order to say, "To be clear, the Court is not ordering an appropriation. The Court is, however, ordering that the State must comply with its constitutional duty to make sufficient sums available to the Department of Hawaiian

Home Lands for its administrative and operating budget. There is still time for the State to heeome in eomplianee during this fiscal year." The ruling eame in response to Nelson v. Hawaiian Homes, a case filed in 2007 by six native Hawaiian beneficiaries who elaim the state's funding of DHHL has been inadequate. The department says that appropriate sum should be more than $28.4 million. In his inihal budget request to the Legislature, Gov. David Ige requested

$9.6 million for DHHL in fiscal year 2017, but on April 4 he increased that request to $17.14 million in general funds. At a press conference announcing the change, the govemor noted, "This is not a settlement of the Nelson case," he said. "The court case is totally separate." A judgment in that case is still pending. Ige's funding increase would

allow DHHL to maintain 48 vacant positions, as well as create 28 new civil service positions, all with the aim of allowing the department to be more efficient and effective. He expects this additional funding to help shorten the waitlist for DHHL leases, but pointed out that the waitlist problem was 70 years in the making and won't be solved with

one funding increase. "This is definitely a positive step in the right direction, and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands will capitalize on this momentum as we eonhnue to work with the Legislature to close the gap before the end of this legislative session," DHHL Director Jobie Masagatani said in a statement. The Legislature is expected to decide on the funding increase by May 5, the last day of the 2016 legislative session. ■

Jobie Masagatani. - Photo: KWO Pile