House budget plan similar to Lingle's
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
The House Finance Committee has advanced a $3.9 billion supplemental budget for the state general fund that is close in total dollar amount to the one submitted by Gov. Linda Lingle's administration.
But it once again gives the Hawai'i Health Systems Corp., which runs the state's community hospital system, $11.5 million less than it had requested.
House Bill 1800 was approved by the Finance Committee on Friday and now goes to the full House and then to the Senate.
House Finance Chairman Dwight Takamine said the budget includes $19 million for programs that tackle the crystal methamphetamine epidemic, $8.3 million for education reform measures and $400,000 to kick off the state's Rx prescription drug program.
In urging committee members to pass the budget bill, Takamine said each of the three areas had been identified as priorities by the Democratic majority at the beginning of the session. "The budget incorporated in the draft before you ensures that progress will be made in those priority areas," he said.
Moreover, he said, the proposal is "a balanced budget with no tax increases."
Also factored into the budget submittal is a little more than $20 million to cover potential increases in collective bargaining contracts. That figure is based on the latest bargaining positions put forth publicly by the administration.
The $3,894,897,709 for fiscal 2005 represents an increase of only $1.7 million from the administration's supplemental general fund request. The Lingle package was about $70 million more than originally allocated for the year by the Legislature in last year's biennial budget.
Takamine said "more than 80 percent" of administration requests for new general fund monies had been incorporated in the House version.
To help balance the budget, the Finance Committee cut about $11.5 million from the Hawai'i Health System Corp.'s request for $31.2 million in general fund subsidies. This would be the second straight year the agency's funding is cut.
Last year, the Legislature provided for a $31.9 million budget that covered only the first year of the two-year budget, leaving nothing for fiscal year 2005 and forcing the Lingle administration to find additional money this year.
Takamine said the agency is expecting additional revenue in the coming year and getting an increase of $65 million in its special fund spending ceiling, to about $324 million.
HHSC chief operating officer Kelley Roberson said that increase, while important, will not help the hospital system generate revenue to meet its shortfall. Roberson said the additional subsidy "is just critical to sustain services to the rural communities that we serve," particularly since the agency has no reserves.
The Finance Committee also found $8 million by deleting some 300 job positions throughout state government that have been vacant since December 2002 or earlier.
Budget Director Georgina Kawamura called the reduction in money for state hospitals troubling. "We're talking about people's lives out there ... ," she said.
She also protested the job cuts, saying they would "hamper each department's ability to achieve results."
The Finance Committee also moved out a $523 million capital improvements budget, which is about $126.3 million more than the $249.4 million Lingle submitted in her supplemental budget. Last year, the Legislature passed a $147.3 million CIP budget.
That means the Legislature is now considering a CIP budget 3 1/2 times larger than was approved in the biennium budget last year.
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
