Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 12, Number 5, 1 May 1995 — Sovereignty plebiscite bill hangs on [ARTICLE]

Sovereignty plebiscite bill hangs on

by Deborah L. Ward

Funding for a planned plebiscite on Hawaiian sovereignty may still be assured, if a !egislative move succeeds to attach specific appropriation Ianguage to another Hawaiian biO. Senate Biil 1336, whieh would establish the Hui 'Imi Pono Advisory Council and make it a part of the Office of ihe Lieutenant Governor until the year 2003, was amended by the Hou.se Pinanee Committee to also provide funding for the Hawaiian Sovereignty Elections Council. The two organizations are separate, but both are concenied with Hawaiian issues. The Hui 'lmi Pono Advisory Council would advise the Legislature, and public and private Hawaiian agencies and organizations on ways to better provide services lo Hawaiians in education, health, employment, eeonomie deveIopment, legal, cultural and social services. HSEC is conducting educational programs and registering Hawaiians in Hawai'i and on the Mainland to participate in a plebiscite by mail that will ask Hawaiians whether they want a formal process for sovereignty to begin. The amended bill would reappropriate this year's funding for the HSEC to the 1 995-96 fiscal year. (The 1 994 Legislature appropriated $1.8 million for HSEC in fiscal 94-95, half from state general funds and half matched by OHA special funds.) A conference committee was to meet on the bill in late April after Ka Wai Ola went to press. Because HSEC funding was frozen early this year by the Governor during an administration budget review of all state-funded agencies, HSEC's education and media outreach programs were delayed. A different bill to secure $460,000 in funding for the HSEC in fiscal year 1995-96 was held in the Senate Hawaiian Affairs committee. Committee chair James Aki said he held the bill because he believes the state should not be involved in any process to determine Hawaiian sovereignty. That is the responsibility of the Hawaiian community to fund and conduct„ not the state, he said. Aki also said that he believes the Hawaiian people are not ready right now for a plebiscite on sovereignty, and that a lot more education needs to be done first. He further expressed eoneem that the plebiscite ballot question has been changed several times and needs to be settled. Aki said "A plebiscite vote is very important and it has to happen, but Iet's wait until it ean be done properIy." Some Hawaiian groups, including Ka Lāhui Hawai'i, have similar views and oppose state funding for the sovereignty plebiscite.