Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 12, Number 6, 1 June 1995 — OHA's budget [ARTICLE]

OHA's budget

"Special" vs. "trust" - More than a matter of semantics

by Jeff Clark When state auditor Marion Higa reported on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs last year, one of her chief concerns was the agency's and the state's practice of referring to OHA's trust funds - totaling one-fifth of the state's revenue from the use of ceded lands - as "special" funds. Higa said this ineome should be referred to as tmst funds, to distinguish it from state special funds over whieh the Legislature has control. The Legislature has no authority to tell the OHA board or its trustees how to expend trust funds, Higa said. The only restriction on the funds is that they be used for the betterment of native Hawaiians, those Hawaiians with 50 percent or more Hawaiian blood. However, when OHA goes to the Legislature with its budget request seeking general funds with whieh to operate, it has always included in its budget request both general and trust funds. Carpenter said that's because OHA is "bound by the format" of budget submittal and is following general guidelines followed by state agencies. The inference drawn by the Legislature is that they have authority over trust funds. OHA's mandate is to better the conditions of Hawaiians. It ean service only native Hawaiians (those with 50 percent or more Hawaiian blood) with trust funds; it must match trust funds with general funds, whieh are provided by the state Legislature, to service the rest of the Hawaiian population. Since 1993, when OHA received a settlement of $134 million in trust funds from the state, it has had an unprecedented opportunity to service native Hawaiians. However, the agency needs to expand its operations in order to do so, and since trust funds ean be used only to service native Hawaiians, they cannot be used to operate the agency. Trustee A. Frenchy DeSoto, head of OHA's legislative lobbying team, told the House Committee on Finance back in January, "A large portion of one of the two trusts established for

OHA has been funded, and this enables OHA to fully and freely provide services to Hawaiians of 50 percent or more blood quantum. The second trust, however,

for Hawaiians who are less than 50 percent blood quantum, is funded by legislative appropriations from the State's general fund. At present, OHA services

Hawaiians at a ratio of seven trust dollars for every general fund dollar. This is far in excess of the general fund appropriations we propose today, so we do not eome

asking for a handout. We eome, in the spirit of cooperation, asking you to help OHA fulfill its mandate - the betterment of conditions of all Hawaiians."