HONOLULU — The Hawaii Senate Ways and Means Committee has announced a two-year state budget proposal that funds some of Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s key initiatives, including early childhood education. HONOLULU — The Hawaii Senate Ways and Means Committee has announced
HONOLULU — The Hawaii Senate Ways and Means Committee has announced a two-year state budget proposal that funds some of Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s key initiatives, including early childhood education.
The Senate proposal is more generous than the House budget draft but it stops short of giving Abercrombie everything he’s asking for.
One major difference between the House and Senate proposals is that House lawmakers chose to cut funding for more than 900 state positions that have been vacant for two or more years.
State department leaders protested the cuts and the Senate committee didn’t include those reductions in its budget proposal.
“There is no fat left in the budget,” said Sen. David Ige, who chairs the Ways and Means Committee. He says past budget cuts have caused some department leaders to leave vacancies open to make sure they have enough funding for their operations and that some of the positions are in the process of being filled.
The committee also chose to fund Abercrombie’s highly publicized preschool program. Abercrombie initially requested about $32 million over two years for the program, but the funding was left out of the House budget draft.
The Senate draft dedicates $1.6 million for fiscal year 2014 and $24.9 million for fiscal year 2015 for the initiative.
State Finance Director Kalbert Young says the proposed funding for preschool is a step forward but he noted that the program may differ from what advocates envision.
Senators also added $4 million per year for the state’s existing Preschool Open Doors program, which provides child care to low income families through the Department of Human Services.
Ige noted that the committee chose to double Abercrombie’s funding request for the Weighted Student Formula, which determines school funding by student need. Senators are proposing about $55 million over two years.
The Senate committee also decided to set aside $8 million in fiscal year 2014 to the HI Growth Initiative to provide resources to aspiring entrepreneurs. That’s less than half of Abercrombie’s $20 million request, but still significant because the program didn’t receive anything in the House draft.
Young said he hopes if the program makes progress over the next year, the state will consider adding more funding for fiscal year 2015.
The Senate and House budget proposals do have several areas in common.
Both proposals set aside at least $100 million per year to help draw down the state’s unfunded liabilities for employee and retiree benefits.
