Cayetano rejects OHA demand
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
Gov. Ben Cayetano has fended off a demand from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for immediate payment of $10.3 million owed to OHA for ceded lands, arguing that OHA must first get legislators to reinstate the law enabling payments to be made.
OHA trustees, joined by a coalition of Native Hawaiian organizations, yesterday demanded the money, which they said was never part of the dispute leading to last year's Hawai'i Supreme Court ruling invalidating the payment law, known as Act 304.
OHA also yesterday put the Legislature on notice that it would turn up the heat for restoration of that act and its system of calculating the state payments on all ceded lands.
The $10.3 million would be for rent from land now controlled by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, payments that were not covered by the ruling handed down Sept. 12, 2001, said Robert Klein, the retired state Supreme Court justice recently hired as legal counsel to the OHA board of trustees.
That ruling resulted in the state halting annual payments of about $15 million that were computed using a formula the court declared in conflict with federal laws. But Klein said the decision shouldn't have halted all payments and the state owes OHA $10.3 million.
"No one has ever disputed them, but the state quit paying them," he said. "What happens is the state is squatting on ceded land."
Haunani Apoliona, chairwoman of the board of trustees, said the demand for the $10 million was made in a letter sent yesterday to the governor.
In addition, the board on Wednesday approved its legislative package, essentially the revival of two bills that were killed in the last lawmaking session:
• A bill to replace the rescinded Act 304, implementing a new formula for calculating ceded-land payments.
• A bill to allot an unspecified amount of money as an interim payment to be made while the issue of the permanent formula is settled.
In a written statement issued yesterday, Cayetano said that the state administration can approve no payments, disputed or otherwise, without the replacement of Act 304:
"The trustees at OHA should know that the administration can only pay out monies pursuant to the law," Cayetano said in the statement, referring to the law that was struck down.
"OHA proposed during the 2002 legislative session new legislation, but the Legislature did not act on the measures," he said. "OHA needs to resolve this with the incoming legislature by putting new laws in place which establish what OHA is to receive."
Ceded lands include nearly 2 million acres of former crown and government lands transferred to the state under the 1959 Admission Act, to be held in trust for public benefits, including improving the lot of Native Hawaiians.
In 1980, legislators set the new Office of Hawaiian Affairs' share of ceded land revenues at 20 percent, a formula codified in 1990 with the passage of Act 304. That law produced a $130 million settlement, but a court dispute over related claims followed.
The dispute culminated in last year's ruling by the state court that the act conflicts with federal laws.
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
