Lingle says plan gives schools more money
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
Gov. Linda Lingle touched off a new round of verbal barbs with the Democratic leaders of the House of Representatives yesterday, accusing them of misrepresenting her reductions to the Department of Education budget.
The state's largest agency, in fact, will be getting more money in the upcoming two years than it is getting now, she said.
House leaders, in response, reiterated that the increases are strictly the result of uncontrollable costs, most notably increases in salaries to DOE employees set by collective bargaining contracts, and that they believe the cuts Lingle made to former Gov. Ben Cayetano's version of the education budget will have severe effects in classrooms.
Yesterday's clash marked an escalation in the war of words between Hawai'i's first Republican governor in four decades and the Democratic majority that has sounded the alarm about cuts in education and social-service programs they say are essential.
Lingle and her chief policy adviser, Randy Roth, criticized Democratic lawmakers for suggesting that 5 percent of the DOE's entire $1 billion-plus budget had been cut when only 5 percent of its discretionary budget, which totals roughly $80 million, had been ordered reduced.
Roth distributed charts showing the DOE budget will go from $1.396 billion this year to $1.417 billion next year and $1.458 billion the year after that.
"The bottom line is spending continues to go up every year," Lingle said. The argument that most of the increases are from fixed costs, she said, only lends credence to her position that the state should set up local school boards that would bring about more direct governance.
"We're in agreement with those people, (that money) has to reach the classrooms," she said. "That's why we want to see a reform in the system."
Roth said the increases in the upcoming two years' budgets amount to 10 percent of the current year's budget.
He said he did not want to address the legislators' argument that increasing nondiscretionary money is cutting into an ever-shrinking discretionary side, referring that issue to the DOE and the Department of Budget and Finance.
House leaders, in response, criticized Lingle and the administration for not looking at the larger issue and the real effects on classrooms and students.
They reiterated that the Lingle budget proposes $25 million less in education over the next three years than the budget submitted by former Gov. Ben Cayetano in December. That money is necessary to cover rising fixed costs and avert cuts in nondiscretionary spending on everything from A-plus to supply purchases, they contended.
That's broken down into basic cuts amounting to $3 million in the fiscal year that ends June 30 and each of the next two years and an added $8 million in each of the next two years, which Cayetano had proposed.
Finance Chairman Dwight Takamine, D-1st (N. Hilo, Hamakua, N. Kohala) said it is Lingle who is misleading the public by trying to give the impression there are no effects. "You have to see the additional fixed costs which don't add one dollar to the classroom budget," he said.
"It's puzzling to me when Mr. Roth says there are no cuts," said Education Chairman Roy Takumi, D-36th (Pearl City, Palisades). "It's accurate to say the DOE budget went up; it's not truthful to say it's more money," Takumi said.
House Majority Leader Scott Saiki, D-22nd (McCully, Pawa'a) said Lingle had campaigned on increasing money for charter schools but is now taking away added money that had been proposed for the program.
The actual budget did increase as a result of an increase in salary and wage hikes and several transfers tied to new DOE mandates, said DOE spokesman Greg Knudsen. However, he said, "we are being given less money to perform the same programs that we have in the previous years."
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
