Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 4, 1 April 2006 — LegisLative upDate [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LegisLative upDate

Several key OHA bills advance, but most don't

By KWŪ staff With just a month to go in this year's state legislative session, several key OHA bills remain alive, although most have fallen by the wayside. Among the bills still moving are two that would authorize funding for the temporary ceded lands revenue agreement reached between OHA and Gov. Linda Lingle in Ianuary. Under the terms of the agreement, OHA would receive $15.1 million annually, in addition to a one-time payment of $17.5 million for certain undisputed past-due amounts. Both the Senate and House versions of the bills now include an amendment that would require the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, working with the Department of Budget and Finance, to provide an annual accounting of the state's ceded lands revenues. The crossover hill currently before the Senate includes an appropriation of $250,000 per year to conduct the accounting, to be matched by OHA if needed. OHA's Beneficiary Advocacy and Empowerment Committee has approved those terms. "An accounting is a good thing, since now we'll be dealing with a flat fee instead of a percentage of revenues," said OHA Administrator Clyde Nāmu'o. "If the revenues go up, we'll want to know about it so we ean go to the Legislature for an adjustment." There had been some eoneein earlier among the agreement's supporters that the governor might reject the deal if the accounting provision was inserted, but those fears seemed to be allayed

when testimony by the state attorney general did not object to the accounting amendment. PASSING Other bills that have continued to advance include: • Land and resource board seats. As it has in the past several sessions, OHA sought to reserve one seat eaeh on land and natural resource boards for an appointee to be chosen by the governor from a list of nominees submitted by OHA. "As the 'fourth ann' of state government, charged with looking out for the interests of Native Hawaiians, it's right that OHA pursue seats on these boards," explained OHA Chairperson Haunani Apoliona. As of this writing, bills remain alive to reserve such seats on the state's Land Use Commission, Commission on Water Resource Management and Coastal Zone Management Authority. • OHA strategic plan. A measure that has already passed and been sent to the governor for signature will remove the statutory requirement that OHA create a master plan for all Hawaiian service agencies and instead acknowledge OHA's existing strategic plan as the agency's master planning document. OHA officials proposed the bill because they said it was unreasonable to expect OHA to coordinate master planning for other agencies. The laek of the currently required master plan has been a regular target of criticism in the State Auditor's periodic reports on OHA.

NOT PASSING OHA measures that have not passed out of committee or are currently deferred include: • OHA olliee and Hawaiian cultural center. After floating a proposal last year to build an OHA office and Hawaiian cultural center on 5.2 acres of state land on the waterfront between Kaka'ako Park and Honolulu Harbor, this year OHA had sought a state bond issue of $1.35 million to help pay for planning and design of the site. However, the proposal never received a committee hearing. • Ceded lands transfers. As in the past, OHA had proposed a bill that would prevent the state from selling off or otherwise "alienating" ceded lands. The bill carried over from the last legislative session, but did not receive a hearing this year. • Kuleana lands. OHA had also proposed bills that would have helped protect kuleana lands (hereditary lands awarded to Hawaiian tenant-fanners at the time of the Mahele) by exempting them from property taxes, giving OHA a greater role in kuleana title cases and prohibiting claims to kuleana lands based on adverse possession. Several of the measures made it through their iniīial committee assignments, but were deferred after they crossed over to the other legislative body • Education. OHA's package included a number of bills aimed at providing better opportunities for Native Hawaiian students in

the public school system. One new proposal would have required the Department of Education to offer Hawaiian language courses in public school and provide financial assistance to university students who connnit to teaching such classes. Other proposals included:

-A study into the effectiveness of the Department of Education's Hawaiian education program. -Establishing alternative licensing requirements for teachers in certain Hawaiian education programs. See UPOAĪE on page 18

KAU KĀNĀWAI • LEGISLATIDN

ln March, the Legislature passed resolutions recognizing 0HA's 25th anniversary, and both houses held ceremonies honoring current and former OHA trustees. Here, state senators greet (from right to left) former trustees 'llei Beniamina, Nōlani Olds, Walter Ritte, and Louis Hao, and present trustee Colette Machado. Photo: Francine Murray

UPPAĪE CūntinuEd fram page ŪG

-Providing funding for a special school district made up of Hawaiian-focused charter schools. -Increasing the number of charter schools. -Providing tuition subsidies for Hawaiian preschoolers and establishing "play-and-learn" programs on Hawaiian homesteads. None of the proposals remained active as of this writing. • Housing. A bill that Nāmu'o described as "one of our most aggressive measures" would have given OHA the authority to

develop housing projects that would be exempt from zoning and other state and county regulations - mueh as the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is now able to do. However, the Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing Committee voted to hold the measure. • Hawaiian antiquities. One OHA bill would have made it a state crime to sell Native Hawaiian antiquities to anyone except qualified museums and repositories, and would have established specific penalties for trafficking in such cultural objects. The measure failed to receive a committee hearing in either legislative body, however. S