WAILUKU — As the county tightens its budget, isle nonprofits are preparing to see their funding cut next year.

Mayor Charmaine Tavares said her administration has asked all nonprofits applying for grants to reduce their requests by 10 percent for the 2010 budget. Agencies that provide life-supporting services, including food and shelter, will be funded first, she said.

Grants that directly support jobs will also be a priority, the Maui News reported today.

"What we don't want as a result of these cuts is a reduction in needed services," she said.

Maui County has traditionally provided more funding to community agencies than other counties in Hawaii, and budgeted $37.5 million for grants this year. But county finance officials are projecting a drop in revenues for fiscal 2009-10, coinciding with declines in property values and tourist traffic.

Tavares already has directed county departments to cut spending in the current fiscal year, asking for 16 percent reductions on budgets that are already into the second quarter to attempt to have $55 million to carry over to fiscal 2010. The county fiscal year runs July 1 through June 30. The mayor is required to prepare her recommendations for the next year's budget by March 15.

In preparing for a tighter budget, Housing and Human Concerns Director Lori Tsuhako said the county commissioned a "community needs assessment" to help develop a more comprehensive funding strategy for grants.

She said she realized most nonprofit agencies already face funding cuts from the state and private foundations. The county is trying to work closely with the agencies even as it deals with its own budget shortfalls, she said.

"The financial challenges we face are going to be faced together, with a shared burden and with shared successes," she said.

Sandy Baz, executive director of Maui Economic Opportunity, said his agency was preparing a "realistic" funding request for next year's budget. Some MEO programs could cut more than the 10 percent directed by the mayor, while others, especially services that meet critical social needs, couldn't justify any cuts.

"For all grants, a 10 percent cut means a 10 percent cut in service," he said. "It may mean we don't do a certain function that we did before. It may mean we have to do a lot less services than we could have provided."

The impact of cuts in budgets will be even more severe because costs continue to increase, and demand for services is expected to go up sharply as the economy worsens, he said.

"We get five calls a day from people who need rental assistance. It used to be five calls a week," he said. "Those are not the kinds of programs you cut at this point."

Baz said MEO was preparing for reductions in county grants by looking for other sources of funding, appealing to donors and volunteers, and looking for more money-making opportunities. A new facility for the agency's BEST program will have a commercial kitchen that can make money through food sales, for example.

"We're looking at all those kinds of things as sources of revenue," he said.

While MEO gets millions a year from the county for its social services and transportation program, agencies

that deal in much smaller sums of money are just as concerned.

The Lahaina Complex After School Enrichment Tutor Project gets just $6,000 a year from the county, but founder and director Pat Endsley said the money goes a long way. The program involves 152 adult and high school tutors who work with students from all four Lahaina public schools three days a week after school.

The county grant funds a bus service so students without transportation can stay late after school.

"We've never asked for any more than we need," Endsley said.

Kansha Preschool in Wailuku has received $25,000

from the county for the past two years. Director Charlene Doi said she worried her grant could be "on the chopping block."

"Realistically, we know what our chances are," she said. "But we also feel that what we provide to the community is very significant."

The preschool, which is part of the state's Good Beginnings program, has an enrollment of 16 children. The curriculum includes daily interaction with senior citizens enrolled in an adult day care facility at the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center.

The adult program is one of four operated by the Maui Adult Day Care Center.

The county grant represents a little less than 20 percent of the preschool's annual budget.

Doi said the school would do everything possible not to reduce services or staffing. She said programs offering quality, affordable child care would be more important than ever as the economy worsens.

"I think we all have to look elsewhere (for funding),

but that elsewhere is becoming smaller and smaller," she said.

Tavares said smaller programs should prepare for

the same 10 percent funding cut as larger agencies but that they shouldn't worry about their entire grant being eliminated.

She said she believed Kansha Preschool was an important program to continue funding.

"If we cut that grant, maybe they couldn't take as many kids," she said. "It has a ripple effect through the community."

Maui United Way President Laksmi Abraham said she was advising all nonprofits to look for ways to become more efficient and look for alternative funding sources.

"Hold on tight to your donors, especially those large donors," she said.

Maui United Way does not receive county grants. But it funds several other agencies that do, and Abraham expected they would be turning to United Way for more money next year.

"I know our agencies are going to be facing heavy

cuts from the county, and Maui United Way will be the only solid granting option for some of these nonprofits," she

said.

The county is expected to focus on core social programs that support food, shelter, clothing and other necessities, Abraham said.

"The agencies appealing for needs like that, for basic human needs, are going to be the priority going forward," she said.

MUW's annual fundraising campaign is "steady," but Abraham said she is expecting revenues to be down slightly this year.

She said she hoped Maui residents would help make up some of the shortfall facing nonprofits by contributing cash, volunteer time or in-kind donations like food.

"We need all the help we can get," she said.

More Maui News at www.mauinews.com.