Hawaii Education Department Wants Budget Exemptions
Hawaii Education Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi says Gov. Neil Abercrombie‘s demand to set aside 5 percent of the department’s discretionary budget as a contingency plan would hurt the district.
She wants , thereby reducing the basis for the restriction by $145 million. This would reduce the department’s no-can-touch money from $12 million to about $5 million.
Matayoshi said the programs she has identified are either projecting shortfalls or are critical to the Race to the Top initiative. They include adult education, student transportation, utilities, child nutrition, systems accountability and school complex area support.
If the governor doesn’t approve the request, the superintendent said some programs will have to be curtailed by much more than 5 percent because they must be maintained at current levels. The timeline for approval is unclear.
Board of Education members received a bleak economic picture Tuesday from the DOE’s chief financial officer and representatives of the state Department of Budget and Finance.
In the short-term, the numbers look solid. Skyrocketing visitor spending this year has helped the state return to the pre-recession levels experienced in 2008.
But when projections are extended five years out and looming budget issues are considered, Hawaii slides back into the red.
Luis Salaveria, deputy finance director, said Hawaii’s unfunded liabilities for pensions and post-employment benefits total $21.8 billion, more than four times the current executive operating budget. With credit rating agencies paying more attention to this, he said downgrades may be possible if the state doesn’t start taking action.
He flagged student transportation as another area of concern. The department cut bus service this school year for some 2,000 students after the Legislature left it with a $17 million shortfall as an attempt to force the district to crack down on skyrocketing contract costs. Another big budget hole is expected next year.
Since the DOE is one of the state’s biggest departments, lawmakers will likely look there for savings.
The department’s operating budget for next year is $1.3 billion, of which $244 million is discretionary. This only includes money from the state general fund, and is flat compared to the current year. The district gets additional funding from the feds, another unstable source.
The governor told department heads last month that all general fund discretionary appropriations will be subject to a 5 percent contingency reserve restriction.
“While we will continue to monitor our state revenues through the fiscal year as more definitive information on tax revenue collections and projections becomes available, I trust that each department will make the necessary effort to operate efficiently and stay within its departmental allocation to allow the state’s fiscal health to be maintained,” Abercrombie said in an .
The department will submit its biennium budget for fiscal years 2013 and 2014 within the next couple months.
“Obviously, the message is there is no money,” board member Brian De Lima said of the budget presentations. “Or if we’re going to put in for a new program, something is going to have to give somewhere.”
Here’s a look at the past seven years of budget appropriations to the DOE:
