Kaua'i budget proposal at $90M

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau

LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Mayor Maryanne Kusaka this week sent the County Council her supplemental county operating budget that calls for spending $90 million for the fiscal year starting July 1.

The supplemental budget is issued after the close of the state Legislature and after the county has a good estimate of the next year's real property tax revenues.

The mayor said the county expects to bring in $41.8 million in property taxes, nearly $690,000 more than expected when the original budget was sent to the council in March. Her original budget proposal for the coming year was $89.3 million.

The new budget amount is 10.4 percent more than the $81.5 million approved for the current fiscal year.

Among the areas of new proposed spending is expanded handling of green waste, the term for yard clippings, tree limbs and other plant material that is dumped at county refuse transfer stations. The county generally grinds it into mulch. Kusaka said the county hopes to privatize a portion of its green-waste handling program.

The county has suffered a series of sewage spills from its aging sewer treatment plants, and Kusaka proposes spending nearly $160,000 to upgrade systems, including alarms that alert managers of problems in the plants.

The police department and Prosecuting Attorney's Office, which will be moving into a new building off Kapule Highway, will get more than $200,000 for equipment and furnishings.

The mayor also is asking the council to approve $50,000 for development of a county energy policy. It would include money to hire a consultant to determine whether it's better to have a cooperative run the island's electric company, or if the county should run it. Money also would be used for a public-education campaign on a proposed amendment to the county charter that would allow the county to run a utility if it decides to do so.

The County Council should vote on a final operating budget within the next few weeks.