Just days after the end of the legislative session and a failed attempt to reach an agreement over how much ceded-land revenue is owed to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the key parties involved appear to again be at loggerheads.

This time the issue is over what should happen next. While Gov. Linda Lingle says her administration stands by the existing proposal, lawmakers and OHA want to go back to the bargaining table.

Lawmakers did not approve an agreement reached between the Lingle administration and OHA that would have given the agency three parcels of land valued at $187 million and $13 million cash, as well as a minimum of $15.1 million in ensuing years.

But in the waning days of the session, legislators tacked onto the state budget a nonbinding proviso requiring the Lingle administration and OHA to resume negotiations on the 30-year-old dispute.

Meanwhile, Lingle on Friday told reporters her staff will not return to the negotiating table with OHA leaders.

The key element is a disagreement over claims to future revenues that would be generated from ceded lands — land that once belonged to the Hawaiian government and have since been "ceded" to the state.

The Lingle bargaining team, led by Attorney General Mark Bennett, pushed hard to include the elimination of all future claims to ceded-land revenues.

But future claims became a serious point of contention for many of those who opposed the bill. A segment of the Hawaiian community questioned the wisdom of OHA bargaining away revenues that could, as yet, be unknown.

While the bill was approved by the House, three Senate committees shelved the plan, insisting that OHA needed to discuss it with beneficiaries.

With several weeks left in the session, senators urged House members to support a new measure calling on the administration and OHA to renegotiate but to leave out discussion of future claims. The House, however, declined to support that legislation and instead asked senators to support the Lingle-OHA plan.

Lingle could not be reached for comment yesterday, and neither could Bennett, who was out of state. Lingle administration spokesman Lenny Klompus confirmed what the governor said on Friday.

"She said she would not resume negotiations with OHA or offer any new proposals to the Legislature regarding a settlement," Klompus said.

The administration was seeking to help the Legislature with its responsibility, Klompus said.

It is not clear if Lingle had known of the budget proviso before making her comments on Friday.

Bennett, when asked several weeks ago what he thought about going back to the bargaining table, said, "I'm not going to speculate about legislation ... but at this point, we have nothing more to negotiate."

As the session ended, OHA Administrator Clyde Namu'o said the agency would take lawmakers' advice and go back and speak to constituents and address their concerns.

Namu'o yesterday told The Associated Press that the future now depends on Lingle.

"We have been without the benefit of these resources for these 30 years while the issues are being debated back and forth," Namu'o said. "A lot of it will depend on the willingness of the executive branch to come to the table and work with us."

OHA wants to leave the price of the deal unchanged at $200 million while reviewing the value and locations of the lands it selected.

Meanwhile, Senate and House leaders who disagreed on the $200 million settlement proposal are in agreement that the administration and OHA should go back to the bargaining table.

Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), said the proviso was inserted in response to OHA's concern that Lingle would not return to negotiate.

Hanabusa said OHA leaders told her and other senators that the idea of eliminating future claims in exchange for $15.1 million annually in the future was Bennett's idea and that they reluctantly agreed. "They had to agree to go along with it or the AG (attorney general) would no longer negotiate," she said.

The bill was subsequently amended in the House to require that $15.1 million be only the annual minimum, but Senate leaders said they still didn't think it was enough for what OHA was giving up.

State Rep. Kirk Caldwell, D-24th (Manoa), the House majority leader, said, "The state and OHA should try to reach an agreement prior to the convening of the next legislative session.

"We believe that OHA and the state negotiated in good faith and that the Legislature this year should have authorized (the settlement agreement). As far as the House is concerned, there is a 30-year obligation outstanding that still needs to be fulfilled. For us, it was a missed opportunity."

Caldwell, an attorney, said he'd heard what Lingle said and doesn't think it works for the lawmakers to negotiate with OHA. "Hopefully, as time passes, the parties will be willing to step up again," he said.

Both Caldwell and Hanabusa agreed, however, that the budget proviso has no effect of law.

"It's up to the governor as to what she wants to do," Hanabusa said. "We'd like to believe that the governor is going to at least give it consideration given the fact that this is the position of the Legislature."