Posted on: Saturday, May 19, 2001
Kaua'i Council fights mayor for control of budget
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua‘i Bureau
LIHU'E, Kaua'i — The Kaua'i County Council is using its new spending plan to tighten the budgetary reins on spending by Mayor Maryanne Kusaka.
The council, while accepting most of Kusaka's suggested $83.7 million operating budget for the fiscal year starting July 1, has made several key amendments. Most notable is not a money item but a management one: The council expects to change the county's budget style from program budgeting to line-item budgeting.
Under the program budgets in place in recent years, the mayor had the freedom to move money around and spend as needed within departments, without consulting the council. With line-item budgeting, the mayor can still move the money, but can't spend it unless the purpose is specifically stated in the budget.
In another blow to the administration, the council's Committee of the Whole withdrew from the budget a $2.1 million request for money to be used toward the purchase of Kaua'i Electric Co.
Council members said that is not an indication they oppose the county's acquisition of the utility, but rather that they prefer to keep more control over the process. The mayor will have to come back to the council for money if she wants to act on a possible purchase.
Similarly, the council dropped Kusaka's request for $100,000 to hire a private company to clean park restrooms on weekends and holidays. It would have been the first county privatization of duties traditionally performed by public workers.
Council Chairman Ron Kouchi said the panel proposes to put $1.2 million into a contingency account in the capital improvements budget; the money could be reinserted into the operating budget if needed.
The Committee of the Whole is expected to approve the proposed budget Monday, and the full council will take it up on final reading May 31.
The council wants to trim Kusaka's budget to $81.5 million and is proposing across-the-board cuts in real property tax rates.
The homestead class, which represents those residential properties in which owners have certified that they live in their homes — as opposed to renting them out, for instance — will receive a cut of 20 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.
Under the proposed rates, a homeowner living in a house valued at $150,000 on a lot valued at $100,000 would receive a $40,000 standard homeowner's exemption on the building and be taxed at $3.79 per $1,000 for the building and $4.65 per $1,000 for the land. The tax bill would be $882 under the proposed rates compared with $924 under the present rates, a $42 savings.
All other classes of property would receive a 10-cent per $1,000 tax-rate cut. The same house cited above, if used as a rental property or if the owner-resident did not file for a homestead exemption, would receive a tax bill for $1,262, a $25 savings over the present rate.
