LIHU‘E — After months of review and weeks of fine tuning, Kaua‘i County Council approved the $269 million fiscal year 2011-2012 budget Wednesday, though not unanimously. “My concern is not really with the spending, it’s with the philosophy of the
LIHU‘E — After months of review and weeks of fine tuning, Kaua‘i County Council approved the $269 million fiscal year 2011-2012 budget Wednesday, though not unanimously.
“My concern is not really with the spending, it’s with the philosophy of the budget,” Councilman Mel Rapozo said. He was the one council member to vote against the budget. “If we continue to vote yes on budgets we don’t agree with, then the system won’t change.”
The approved operating budget for FY 2011 totals $185.97 million, representing an increase of more than $38 million or approximately 25 percent over last year’s $147.6-million budget. Council unanimously approved the $83.23 million budget for FY 2011 capital improvement projects, which are funded primarily through bonds.
“The philosophy I thought this year was to reduce and we didn’t,” Rapozo said. “We increased and we increased substantially.” He said he believes the increased spending sends the wrong message to the state, to the Federal government and to voters.
Councilman KipuKai Kuali‘i, though new to the council, readily spoke of concerns with the budget’s political process, specifically Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.’s creation of five new positions in his administration in the middle of the budget year, each costing taxpayers in excess of $100,000.
By creating these positions in the middle of the budget year, the mayor is not required to obtain council approval for funding, he said. Council could choose not to fund the positions within the next year’s budget, but that would require layoffs, something he said is almost impossible to do.
“Four of these five positions were dollar-funded positions, additions to the budget that the mayor chose to make,” he said. “The council needs to have full budgetary powers in order to protect the interests of our citizens by being a check and balance of the administration on all expenditures, especially salaries. If it takes changing the law then that needs to happen.
“It’s against the interest of the community to give council authority for budgetary oversight when it comes to taking on new expenditures in excess of $6,500 for equipment, furniture and vehicles in the middle of the fiscal year but not have a law to prevent the manipulation of vacant or dollar-funded positions resulting in several new positions each costing over $100,000, positions that some citizens have brought to my attention as unnecessary political hires,” Kuali‘i said.
“Having the council approve these changes to positions in between budgets and prior to any actual hiring would prevent the administration from acting alone and would restore the public’s confidence in our county hiring process.”
He said his biggest issue is that he felt that council should have been more prudent with spending and looked for meaningful cuts that could have been made in areas that are not critical to next year’s operations.
“I have been seriously considering voting no to this budget,” Kuali‘i said. “However, I have decided, recognizing that I have only been in this position for six weeks now and in deference to Chair Furfaro and the other council members, I will reluctantly vote yes.”
He said he intends to introduce an amendment to council in the coming weeks.
Councilman Tim Bynum said the budget reflects the county’s current status.
“These budget issues are complex, but the reality is we’ve had a growing surplus,” he said. “That has positive things and has negative things. But this budget is not a huge increase in spending.”
He added that council and the administration moved aggressively when the fiscal conditions became difficult. Many positions were frozen, he said, and measures were taken to cut the budget over a two or three-year period.
“Overall this is a budget I can support,” Bynum said. “ I don’t like every element of it, but that’s what the democratic process is about and council members did an outstanding job of identifying critical needs, identifying areas where we could cut — and we did — and so overall, I think this was a good budget process and I’m happy to vote for it today.”
“This budget isn’t perfect for any council member or any member of the public or for the mayor and his administration.,” Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura said. “Nobody is completely satisfied with it … but it’s basically, I think, a good budget.”
She said she is concerned that there is no money in the budget for a materials recycling facility and curbside recycling program would not be successful without a MRF to divert trash from the landfill.
Councilman Dickie Chang said it was the most challenging and most spirited budget session he has ever experienced. “It was an open-minded discussion all of the way through,” he said, “and a thoroughly enjoyable experience.”
Councilwoman Nadine Nakamura said she believes the budget accomplishes three major things: It creates a “sizable, responsible reserve for future economic uncertainties, it provides Kaua‘i citizens with a consistent level of services” and “it invests in our island’s economic future.”
Both Nakamura and Kuali‘i said lists of questions were created for departments, but by the time responses were provided there was little time to “digest the information,” as Nakamura put it. She also expressed concern about an “increase in requests to fund social services as state funding is reduced or eliminated,” and that it is “not clear that we have a strategic approach to address these needs.”
Council Chair Jay Furfaro said he is pleased that the budget establishes a reserve fund.
“At a time when the state is negotiating about capping the debt ceiling and the state, as we see daily, is in difficult times, it really says to us how important it is to have a reserve policy.”
A display sheet placed over the county’s seal in chambers listed a reserve goal of $33 million, approximately 18 percent of the total operating budget.
Council added $750,000 to the mayor’s final supplemental budget, Furfaro said, “because we saw the need. That’s simply what it boils down to.”
In closing, Furfaro emphasized, “Please remember, a budget is simply a forecast,” and with a reserve policy in place, the county can begin to look at “meaningful tax revisions.”
The budget will now go to Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. for final approval. The mayor has the power to line-item veto the budget, meaning he does not have to approve the budget as a whole. A council super majority of five of seven votes could override a mayoral veto.
• Vanessa Van Voorhis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or by emailing vvanvoorhis@thegardenisland.com.
