Special to Hawaii247.com by Richard Rapoza/www.hawaiisenatemajority.com

The Senate Ways and Means Committee has released its version of the state budget, balancing the budget despite recent decreases in funding estimates from the state’s Council on Revenues.

Ways and Means Chairwoman Sen. Donna Mercado Kim said, “The House had the unenviable task of having to craft the House Draft of the budget that balanced the Council’s January forecast with no updated plan by the governor. They accomplished this in part by controlling expenditures by eliminating programs, cutting warm bodies, cutting the base budget and transferring general fund expenses to non-general funds. With the Council of Revenues March 12 downgrade by $262 million over the biennium, the Senate then had the equally unenviable task of crafting a budget with even less resources and pleas for reinstating programs and cuts made by the House and the governor.”

The Senate’s draft budget also minimizes the effects on state workers by eliminating 163 vacant positions, for a savings of $7.7 million, and prioritized limiting cuts to filled exempt positions. 

The majority of those filled positions – 42.5 – fall under the state’s Occupational Safety Program, which is being shifted back to the federal government in the second quarter of the 2011 fiscal year.

“I must emphasize that this is a very tight budget as we tried to squeeze so many things back in,” Kim said. “But the reality is we cannot restore every program or provide full funding. We definitely had to prioritize and make the hard choices. We chose to keep those who provide direct services to the public, while eliminating non-core, and in most cases exempt, special assistants and PR types.”

The committee was also concerned about the continued maintenance of the health care and social safety net:

• $30 million a year was added to support the network of state hospitals, which are especially critical on the neighbor islands.

• $2.6 million to restore the adult dental program for those who rely on receiving health care through the Medicaid program.

• $566,000 to initiate a pilot program for electronic monitoring of committed persons (prisoners) to help reduce costs of incarceration.

• Funding was maintained for the Disability and Communications Access Board (DCAB) by identifying $508,000 a year in federal funds for FY10 and FY11.

• Approximately half of the $1.46 million cut to the Partnership in Community Living Program cut imposed by the Administration has been restored with the use of $700,000 in tobacco settlement funds.

• The $412,000 a year cut proposed by the Administration for respite services to give temporary relief to families with ongoing care-giving responsibilities for emotionally disturbed children and developmentally disabled children and adults have been restored using tobacco settlement funds.

Kim also noted some matters were still open for discussion, but the committee held the line on GE tax increases. 

“This budget is balanced with enough options still on the table in conference,” she said. “It balances without increasing the regressive, pyramiding of the GE tax which is extremely harsh on business during these financially difficult times, and without resorting to furloughs.”