Posted on: Friday, May 2, 2003

Council panel debates hold on Harris' budget

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

As the budget battle heats up at City Hall, Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi and Mayor Jeremy Harris stepped up criticism of each other's methods of balancing the budget.

At a public hearing on Wednesday night, Kobayashi accused the mayor of sending down a "phantom budget" that was balanced with nonexistent funds.

She accused the administration of holding the council hostage by forcing members to accept almost $50 million in fee and tax proposals or making huge cuts to the administration's $1.178 billion operating budget.

Kobayashi threatened to hold the budget, fee and tax-rate legislation in her committee. It is her belief that the mayor's budget will automatically take effect on June 15, but short $23 million in taxes and $25 million in fees.

"It's like sending a message to the administration that they shouldn't send us this phantom bill," she said. "We have a big problem facing us so we should work together and try to find a solution, with the least impact on our taxpayers."

Harris yesterday said Kobayashi's characterization of the budget process "indicates to us that either the budget chair really does not have any idea about the budget process or is being completely disingenuous about the council's responsibility during the process."

He said if the council holds the budget expenditure and fee bills, the whole package he proposed would go into effect on June 15, including a $2 counter service fee at satellite city halls that the council voted down on Wednesday.

One of Kobayashi's criticisms is that the administration waited until it submitted the budget to give council members the revenue generating fee bills and tax-rate-increase proposal used to balance the budget. She said the council should have been given the opportunity to approve the fees and taxes so the administration would know how much money it had before creating the budget.

Harris, however, argues: "That's what a budget is. That's how you submit a budget.

"For her to allege that somehow this is an illegal or inappropriate budget (indicates) she has no idea of how the budget operates or she is being completely deceptive to the public," he said.

While Kobayashi could conceivably leave the budget bills off her committee's agenda and force the rest of the council to vote to pull the bills out of committee or not act at all, she said she would not make that decision on her own.

"I would talk to my members. I certainly don't want to do something that's contrary to what the members want," she said.

So far, no special budget committee meetings have been scheduled and the committee will not meet again until May 14. The council is expected to vote on the budget, fee and tax- rate increase on June 4.

Although other council members share Kobayashi's frustration, they are not likely to let the mayor's budget go into effect without changing it. Councilwoman Barbara Marshall, for example, has pointed out that it would mean that fee proposals they do not agree with would go into effect.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.