Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 19, Number 7, 1 July 2002 — Another trustee article on ceded land revenues [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Another trustee article on ceded land revenues

Although the legislative ses~ sion ended last month and the whole Office of Hawaiian Affairs interim revenues from ceded lands bill may seem like yesterday's news to some, the facts remain that there is no incoming revenue coming to OHA from ceded lands and we trustees have yet to decide on any course of action on how this is to be rectified, I am fairly sure that eventually a concurrence of the board will agree to take this issue to the courts, with the expectation that the state will subsequently be forced to pay OHA our share of revenue, This decision is a most logical one, The Hawai'i Supreme Court did affirm the State's obligation to pay OHA its pro rata share of rev~ enues derived from ceded lands, Furthermore, Chapter 10 section 13,5 still clearly states, "20 percent of all revenue derived from the pub~ lie land trust shall be expended by the (Office of Hawaiian Affairs) for the betterment of native

Hawaiians," We should prevail because everything is in our favor, While I certainly would not dis~ count the courts as a viable solution in this matter, it is important to look at history, learn from past mistakes, and consider potential worst~case scenarios that could arise from any decision we might make, The history of the repeal of Act 304 actually begins with OHA winning a 1996 Circuit Court decision ruling obligating the State to pay OHA additional funds, īt was logieal for OHA to expect that when the decision was appealed, a ruling would ultimately go our way since everything was in our favor, To say things didn't go as planned would be an understatement, Make no doubt about it, the Sept, 12 Supreme Court decision was neither wise nor proper, it was cowardly, The court took the easy way out and threw the issue back to the State and OHA to fight over, leaving OHA at a disadvantage and its trustees shocked, befuddled, and

scratching their heads searching for answers, Thus far, most trustees have focused on the part of the court decision that instructs the state to fulfill its obligations to OHA within legal guidelm.es, Since developing another formula and paying OHA fulfills this obligation, the matter, in their minds, should be cut and dry, Yet as most Hawaiians know all too well, being right and receiving justice do not necessarily go hand-in-hand, What is frightening and so far overlooked amidst this whole deba~ ele, however, is the fact that the state ean also settle its legal obliga~ tions to the courts by repealing Chapter 10 section 13,5, Taking this threat too lightly could leave us, onee again, shocked, befuddled, and scratching our heads looking for answers, The answer, I believe, lies in making the state pay OHA although it obviously doesn't want to, The way to accomplish this is through

our people, When our politicians start feeling that their positions are at stake they will pay OHA its share of ceded lands revenues with a smile, whether they want to or not, For this to occur, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs must erase any doubt that we are indeed the agency for Hawaiians, We need to increase our efforts to create and implement programs and services, despite the fact that OHA is currently receiving no revenue from the state, We must also effectively inform our people of the existing programs and ser~ vices that OHA currently provides, Finally, we have to reach out and ask our people for their help and support, When we convince Hawaiians that OHA works for them, that OHA's money is their money, they will become our greatest lobbyists, While this has always been our mandate, it is now our only guarantee of success in whatever course of action we might take in regards to our ceded land revenue payments,B

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John D. Waihe'e IV Trusfee, At-large