HONOLULU (AP) — A judge is removing language from a November order instructing the state to increase funding for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands by nearly $19 million.
HONOLULU (AP) — A judge is removing language from a November order instructing the state to increase funding for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands by nearly $19 million.
Circuit Judge Jeannette Castagnetti said this week she would amend the order to say the state should instead make “sufficient general funds available” to the department.
The previous order had called for funding to grow from $9.6 million to $28.5 million, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported on Thursday (https://bit.ly/1p3UKfP).
Castagnetti’s decision came after Gov. David Ige’s administration argued that the court order violated the constitution’s separation of powers. Attorney General Doug Chin agreed, saying courts couldn’t order the state to appropriate a specific dollar amount to a government department.
The Attorney General’s Office indicated in a statement it was satisfied with the order’s new language.
“Our primary concern was the separation of powers,” Josh Wisch, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, said by email.
In court Monday, Castagnetti still suggested that DHHL’s current level of funding at $9.6 million was not enough to cover operating and administrative costs.
“To be clear, the court is not ordering an appropriation. The court is, however, ordering that the state must comply with its constitutional duty to make sufficient sums available to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for its administrative and operating budget,” Castagnetti said, according to a transcript of the court proceeding. “There is still time for the state to become in compliance during this fiscal year.”
In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled on a lawsuit brought on behalf of Native Hawaiian beneficiaries that the state had “failed by any reasonable measure to provide sufficient funding to DHHL.” The high court sent the case back to Circuit Court to determine what constitutes a sufficient sum.
Wisch said the Ige administration has not decided whether it will proceed with an appeal in the case.