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Hawaii senators on Wednesday cut $140 million from Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s $23 billion biennium budget request, far less than the House did earlier this month.

The Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Sen. David Ige, voted to put more money toward a publicly funded preschool and overhauling the state’s outdated information technology system.

Abercrombie wants to create an early learning program to serve 17,000 4-year-olds by 2021. To get it started, he asked the Legislature for $2.9 million next year and $28.2 million the following year.

The House didn’t include any funding for the proposed program, saying the bills need vetted before budgeting money.

The Senate wants to do something for early childhood education, but has provided less than what the governor wants. Its money committee budgeted $1.6 million for 2014 and $20.9 million for 2015.

But Ige said the Senate also wants to include $8 million over the next two years for the Department of Human Services to expand and reconfigure its preschool Open Doors program, which he called an “essential precursor.”

State Finance Director Kalbert Young said the Senate proposal is something the administration could work with.

“It’s not near where the governor had initially proposed and it may not be the same program that is being contemplated by the early childhood coordinator, but it is a building process,” he said.

Noting a when it comes to government spending transparency, Ige said the Senate’s budget calls for a significant investment in the state’s IT infrastructure.

“Government transformation begins and ends with an upgrade in IT systems,” he said.

Senators approved $27.3 million for next year and $27.1 million the following year toward the IT initiative. This is more than the House included, but still only 85 percent of the governor’s request.

Young said the money will help resolve the spending transparency problem.

“We recognize that IT transformation is imperative if we want better public transparency and financial reporting,” he said.

One of the biggest differences between the House and Senate versions of the budget at this point is the decision to keep more than $50 million in the budget for almost 1,000 vacant positions. It’s money that department heads said they rely on to fund programs and pay for employee vacation days and overtime.

The House wants to nix the vacancy funding — along with more than $400 million in additional cuts off Abercrombie’s executive budget request — to make the budget more accountable.

Ige said his committee shares the House concerns over providing more transparency in the budget. He noted that the Legislature has worked the past two years to delete unfunded vacancies and other measures that hide the true cost.

But there was insufficient time to evaluate the overall impact of deleting all those empty positions this year, Ige said. He added that departments have few discretionary funds, often leaving vacant positions as the only option managers have to address unanticipated costs.

The House and Senate versions of the budget, which will be merged and molded in conference committee next month, do share some similarities.

Both put $200 million over the next two years toward paying down the state’s unfunded liabilities. And neither includes money for pay raises for thousands of public workers whose union leaders are negotiating new contracts, aside from restoring the 5 percent pay cuts they took in 2011 during the economic downturn.

Young said the administration is glad everyone is moving in the same direction on unfunded liabilities. He said it’s critical for the state to dig itself out of a multi-billion-dollar hole in health and retirement benefits promised to thousands of employees.

Ige said the Senate wants to go one step further this session by passing a bill to make paying for these benefits “a priority rather than an afterthought.” He said the Senate’s financial plan makes a commitment to fund a five-year schedule to ensure all public employers meet their full annual required contributions by 2018.

The administration strongly supports lawmakers’ efforts to pass , Young said.

“If that bill can pass and get signed by the governor, it would put Hawaii at the forefront in terms of dealing with unfunded liabilities,” Young said. “It would make the state go instantly from last to first.”

He considered it an aggressive plan, but necessary.

“I don’t think you can address a significant problem like that with slow and moderate,” Young said. “It needs to be something that’s very proactive and aggressive.”

Other Highlights

Here are some of the other highlights from the Senate budget (numbers are for the biennium unless otherwise noted):

• $70 million for expansion of Kona and $140 million for Honolulu airports
• $250 million for harbors
• $120 million for information systems in various departments
• $5.2 million for good agricultural practices task force and livestock feed development program
• $8 million for the innovation initiative
• $5.2 million for ag resource management programs, projects
• $25 million for sequestration contingency fund
• $355,000 for Hawaii Refinery Task Force
• $1 million for Hawaii Health Information Exchange
• $3.9 million for state energy projects
• $205.5 million for Medicaid
• $874,000 for veteran services
• $1.8 million for homeless shelters, services
• $55 million in extra discretionary funds for school principals
• $4.2 million for kupuna care
• $1.4 million for aging and disability resource centers
• $3.2 million to re-open Kulani Correctional Facility
• $294,000 for four positions to help fill vacant positions
• $9.6 million each of the next two years for Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for administrative and operating costs

While all the numbers are preliminary, here’s how the three versions of the stack up:

• Senate: $11.9 billion in 2014 and $12.15 billion in 2015
• House: $11.58 billion in 2014 and $11.67 billion in 2015
• Governor: $11.82 billion in 2014 and $12.12 billion in 2015

Ige said the Senate version is highest because the House and governor’s budgets didn’t include money for the DHHL trust funds. The Senate has budgeted $227.6 million for next year and $230.9 million the following year in total trust funds, which is more than $140 million higher annually than the House’s and governor’s budgets.

Sen. Sam Slom, the Senate’s sole Republican, refuted Ige’s assertion that the budget was “conservative,” which is how the House has characterized its budget.

Slom was pleased there were no tax increases, but said this budget does not improve the economic situation for the people of Hawaii.

“This is a draft,” he said. “We have a long way to go till the end.”

The Executive Office on Early Learning receives in-kind services and support from The Omidyar Group (www.omidyargroup.com) as well as grants from the Hawaii Community Foundation via the Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Ohana Fund. The Office of Information Management and Technology also was funded in part with a $3 million grant from the Omidyar Ohana Fund. Pierre Omidyar is the CEO and publisher of Civil Beat.