Posted on: Friday, January 10, 2003

Lingle wants emergency $10.3M ceded-land payment

By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer

Gov. Linda Lingle, declaring that what helps Hawaiians helps all residents of Hawai'i, said yesterday she will ask the Legislature for an emergency appropriation to give the Office of Hawaiian Affairs

$10.3 million in ceded-land payments that were suspended earlier because of litigation.

And Lingle said she has asked her attorney general, Mark Bennett, to fashion a way to resume the payments on a regular basis without the risk that a court would find the payments illegal.

Her announcement brought a standing ovation from Hawaiian leaders gathered in Waikiki yesterday to tell Lingle they want her to champion their cause.

It was her first meeting with Hawaiian leaders since her election, and she wanted to receive their suggestions before completing her plans and legislative package for the coming year.

Robin Danner, executive director of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancements, said she knew of no other governor who had moved so quickly to involve the Hawaiian community in her planning.

Lingle gave the keynote address at the council's Native Hawaiian Forum and Roundtable, which began Monday with workshops to define major Hawaiian issues for the governor's attention, and ended yesterday with the group's presenting a "sampling" of those issues to the new administration.

OHA Chairwoman Haunani Apoliona said "Hawaiians will be very pleased to hear" Lingle's pledge on ceded-land revenues, and said the Hawaiian community looks toward the Lingle administration with "optimism and hope" for help with many issues.

Lingle said there is undisputed revenue from ceded lands that once belonged to the Hawaiian monarchy. She said she would devise a process in the short term to resume payments and do everything possible to overcome the legal challenges against the payments.

She said that legislative leaders had told her they felt it was necessary for the House and Senate to move ahead with payment of the $10.3 million, and that she had decided there was no point in souring a good relationship just to make the payment a few weeks earlier.

House Speaker Calvin Say said yesterday he believes that the Legislature would support what is due, but that the $10.3 million needs to be looked at carefully.

Apoliona said the regular income from ceded lands had been running about $2 million a quarter before the law enabling the state to pay OHA for the use of these lands was overturned by the Hawai'i Supreme Court more than a year ago.

OHA's supporters plan to have legislation introduced this month to resurrect that law.

Advertiser staff writer Gordon Y. K. Pang contributed to this report.