ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ

“This is kind of an odd situation for me.”

With that, Russell Kokubun started anew his relationship with the Hawaii Legislature. This time, he’s on the other side of the negotiating table.

Kokubun, until recently a Big Island senator, got reacquainted with old friends Wednesday when the Senate Ways and Means Committee held a for the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, which Kokubun now serves as interim director.

Close working relationships between the administration of Neil Abercrombie — himself a former state lawmaker — and the Legislature could make the struggle to solve the budget puzzle and other pressing matters a little less painful.

Or maybe not.

“What goes around comes around,” Sen. Clarence Nishihara, chair of the Agriculture Committee, joked with Kokubun before the hearing started.

During his decade in the Senate, Kokubun focused on many of the same issues he’ll now work on for the administration. In the last legislative session, he was chair of the Water and Land Committee and a member of the Ways and Means and Energy and Environment Committees. Kokubun’s appointment was so recent that his Kau-Puna-Hilo seat sat empty until Abercrombie tapped Gilbert Kahele to fill the vacancy on Tuesday.

“I really appreciate the roles that everybody is going to play in this legislative session,”
Kokubun told his former colleagues.

At times, he used the pronoun “we” to refer, alternately, to both the Legislature and the department — making it easy to forget that he is no longer a lawmaker. After the meeting, he told Civil Beat he feels his legislative experience will serve him well in his new role.

The meeting was decidedly non-confrontational. That could be due to the presence of Kokubun or the absence of Sens. Donna Mercado Kim and Sam Slom, who have been among the toughest on other departments during preliminary budget reviews.

The only flashes of disagreement came during a line of questioning from Sen. Glenn Wakai regarding the . After greeting Kokubun with a “welcome home,” Wakai asked why the department is budgeting 36 positions and increasing its spending to more than $3 million on quarantining incoming pets even though some 90 percent of those animals just pass through the airport under the 5-Day-or-Less Program.

State veterinarian Jim Foppoli told Wakai that the number of total animals has gone up dramatically, from about 3,000 in 1997 to 10,000 last year. Even though the new expedited rabies program was instituted during that time, sending the vast majority of pets quickly out from the airport, expenditures have been increasing due to collective bargaining and the rising cost of materials, Foppoli said.

The program’s cost has gone from about $2.2 million or $2.4 million in 1997, according to Foppoli, to the $3.29 million figure in the proposed Fiscal Year 2012 budget. The department’s 2012 annual budget is projected to be $42.9 million, up from $41.5 million in 2011 but still one of the smallest departments in the state.

“It doesn’t sit well with me,” Wakai said. “I don’t see how this program fits in with the austerity” that others are facing.

Kokubun quickly defused the situation, telling Wakai the department will work to quantify the value of the added service being provided to customers and citizens. Some are so connected to their pets and so loathe to part with them that they’ve camped out at the kennels, he said.

If Wednesday’s meeting was just the starting lineups, complete with warm greetings from the home team and introductions for each of the department’s division chiefs and branch managers, then the legislative session and its substantive budget battles will be the actual game that pits Kokubun against his former teammates.

In his [pdf], Kokubun shared the department’s preliminary budget proposal and said his mission includes “rejuvenating the economy, protecting important resources, and gaining greater self- sufficiency in food production and alternative energy development.”

Kokubun highlighted legislative initiatives he hopes the Legislature will move forward. They include:

• A “new farmer loan” program to encourage more people to work the land;
• The proposed lease of six Halawa acres to help fund the Animal Industry Division; and
• A capital improvement request for some $15 million in bonds to maintain and repair reservoirs and dams.

Kokubun, who chaired the Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Task Force, also said that agriculture and energy should go hand-in-hand as the state tries to increase its independence.

He said he wants to expand the Agribusiness Development Corporation’s scope to include energy projects. Kokubun also wants the Legislature to consider redistributing the barrel tax that was passed in 2010. Currently, 60 cents are allocated to the general fund. He’d like half of that to go to clean energy and the other half to growing local food.

Kokubun told Civil Beat after the meeting that he expects the working group to release a report soon, possibly as early as this month, though any changes would likely not be discussed until next year.