By Ronna Bolante
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
Washington Place renovation plans hit a roadblock when lawmakers denied a $1 million request for money by first lady Vicky Cayetano to convert the residence into a museum.
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| The nonprofit Washington Place Foundation is trying to raise money to turn the residence into a museum.
Advertiser library photo • May 22, 2000 |
The new nonprofit Washington Place Foundation is trying to raise $1 million in private money for the project, and another $1 million to build a new residence for the governor mauka of Washington Place.
Earlier this year, Gov. Ben Cayetano and Vicky Cayetano asked the Legislature to kick in $1 million to renovate the existing governor's residence and prepare new gallery spaces on the second floor of the mansion.
But in the House draft of the Legislative budget, lawmakers refused to give state financing for the project, leaving the foundation to raise the $3 million privately.
The House will vote today whether to approve the budget draft. The proposed budget will then move to the Senate.
"The issue for us would be, at this time, whether making Washington Place a museum is a good idea," said Brian Taniguchi, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. "It seems to be more of a timing issue."
Taniguchi, D-11th (McCully, Moiliili, Manoa), said lawmakers must first deal with a number of costly issues this session.
The Legislature is trying to appropriate hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for public worker union contracts and comply with the Felix consent decree to attend to the needs of special education students.
"Education is more of a priority for us (the Senate), but it doesn't mean we're not going to do anything else," Taniguchi said. "I'm looking to see what kind of support I can get from the members."
The House did support renovating Washington Place, Speaker Calvin Say said. But "it was a decision made by the Finance Committee that it wasn't a high priority," said Say, D-18th (St. Louis, Palolo, Kaimuki).
Washington Place curator Jim Bartels said he was disappointed with the House decision but hopeful the Senate would reconsider.
"There's been a lot of community support, and this is conceived as public-private partnership," Bartels said. "The private sector has been very, very generous. But we're hopeful the other house will reconsider."
Bartels said it is historically important to maintain the governor's residence, which is also the former home of Queen Liliuokalani.
"The problem we have with the preservation of an old house is there is a time factor," Bartels said. "You can't postpone it indefinitely."
Under the plan, the private upstairs living area of the governor’s mansion would be converted into a gallery space with exhibits detailing the 153-year history of the building.
The Washington Place Foundation would also build new living quarters for the governor on an adjacent piece of land, where the caretaker’s cottage is located.
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