{"id":58597,"date":"2017-04-11T08:05:54","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T18:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=58597"},"modified":"2019-03-01T14:57:19","modified_gmt":"2019-03-02T00:57:19","slug":"2017-legislative-budget-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2017\/04\/11\/2017-legislative-budget-update\/","title":{"rendered":"2017 legislative budget update"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

\"Hawaii<\/p>\n

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Kalbert Young<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kalbert Young<\/a>, UH<\/abbr> vice president for budget and finance and chief financial officer, shares his analysis of the 2017 legislative session to date. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> State Legislature<\/a> is now entering its final month for 2017, and in the next few weeks both the House Committee on Finance<\/a> and the Senate Committee on Ways and Means<\/a> will be meeting in joint conference committee to deliberate their disagreements with each other’s draft of the state budget and to eventually settle on appropriation decisions for every state department and agency.<\/p>\n

The deliberations will be watched by all state agencies including the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span><\/a>. Prior to the beginning of the legislative session, UH<\/abbr> submitted a very lean request for additional general fund support of $28,700,000 in FY18 and $29,600,000 in FY19. All requests aligned with the four strategic directions which include: Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Graduation Initiative<\/a>, Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Innovation Initiative<\/a>, 21st Century Facilities<\/a> and High Performance Mission-Driven System<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Governor’s Executive Budget, which was submitted in December 2016, included a total of $21,900,372 for FY18 and $21,834,372 for FY19 for UH<\/abbr>. However in early February, the governor sent down a message significantly reducing his December budget request due to the Council of Revenue’s downward forecast, and the only item which remained was $5,000,000 in each year for the UH<\/abbr> Cancer Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In March of 2017, the House draft of the state budget only provided six school psychologists for a total of $600,000 appropriation, but transferred four extension agents from UH<\/abbr> Mānoa to the State Department of Agriculture for a total of $330,000, which provided UH<\/abbr> with a net gain of $270,000.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of April, the Senate passed its version of the budget, which provided $3,000,000 in each year for the UH<\/abbr> Cancer Center; $350,000 for concussion awareness; $240,800 for Heʻeia Reserve; $1,290,000 for Title IX<\/abbr> compliance; $400,000 for positions to help with the management of UH<\/abbr>’s capital projects; and $1,829,000 for the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Promise Program.<\/p>\n

With uncertainty in the trajectory of state tax revenues and pressure from on-going collective bargaining negotiations, it is likely that very few additional requests will be funded by the Legislature.<\/p>\n

Since the conference committee meetings on the budget will begin shortly, below is a synopsis of how UH<\/abbr> has fared this session.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n <\/tr>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Campus<\/th>\nDescription<\/th>\nUH<\/abbr> Request<\/th>\nHouse Draft<\/th>\nSenate Draft<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Mānoa<\/td>\nUH<\/abbr> Cancer Center Support<\/td>\n4 positions and $5,000,000<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n4 positions and $3,000,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
System<\/td>\nÂ鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Graduation Initiative<\/td>\n12 positions and $9,850,000<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
System<\/td>\nÂ鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Research and Innovation Initiative<\/td>\n5 positions and $3,500,000<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
System<\/td>\nGraduate Student Salary Support<\/td>\n$2,850,000<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
UHCC<\/abbr><\/td>\nTitle IX<\/abbr><\/td>\nTotal request was $1,850,000<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n4 positions and $820,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
System<\/td>\nTitle IX<\/abbr><\/td>\n <\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n3 positions and $470,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
System<\/td>\nHigh Performance Mission Driven System<\/td>\n7 positions and $2,800,000<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
UHCC<\/abbr><\/td>\nÂ鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Promise Program<\/td>\n$2,500,000<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n$1,829,000 for the Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Promise Program<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
System<\/td>\nPositions for Capital Improvement Projects<\/td>\n$400,000<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n$400,000 for 5 positions to assist management of Capital Projects<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mānoa<\/td>\nTransfer out positions from CTAHR<\/abbr> to Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Department of Agriculture<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\nTransfer out 4 positions and $330,000<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mānoa<\/td>\nConcussion Awareness<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n$350,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mānoa<\/td>\nHeʻeia Reserve<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n2.64 positions and $240,800<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mānoa<\/td>\nSchool Psychologists<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n3 positions and $300,000<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hilo<\/td>\nSchool Psychologists<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n1 position and $100,000<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
UHCC<\/abbr><\/td>\nSchool Psychologists<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n2 positions and $200,000<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Much of the university’s request is not included in either the House or Senate version of the budget—although, it appears the Senate was marginally more supportive of the university’s overall request than the House.<\/p>\n

For the capital improvement projects budget, the initial UH<\/abbr> request was for $452.6 million over the two-year biennium. That amount was reduced by the governor to $150 million in his request submitted to the Legislature in December 2016. The House draft of the budget provided $150.5 million, although that was separated into 50+ individual line itemed projects. The Senate draft provided only $62.8 million for capital projects. <\/p>\n

The following table shows the four main categories:<\/p>\n