Categorized | Government, News

Mayor Kenoi’s amended budget submitted to the County Council

MEDIA RELEASE

May 5, 2010

The Honorable Chairman J Yoshimoto
and Members of the Hawai‘i County Council
25 Aupuni Street,
County of Hawai‘i
Hilo, HI 96720

Dear Chairman Yoshimoto and Council Members:

As required by the Hawai‘i County Charter, the amended operating budget proposal for the County of Hawai‘i for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011 is hereby submitted.

OVERVIEW

This balanced budget includes estimated revenues and appropriations of $376,001,627 and includes the operations of eleven of the County’s special funds as well as the General Fund. It is $11,044,576 lower than this year’s budget, and is $27,203,371 or 6.74 percent lower than the budget in effect when I took office.

I present you with this balanced budget proposal during a very difficult time for all of the citizens of this island. The construction, tourism and agricultural sectors all face an extremely challenging economic environment. While we see signs of a potential recovery on the national and local scenes, we must continue to reduce spending, focus on core County services and budget conservatively to provide for stability until our local economy rebounds. This budget accomplishes those objectives.

County government is now entering its second consecutive year of budget cuts and spending reductions, and we must prepare for the challenges that lie ahead. My administration confronted a budget shortfall of $38.1 million in the current fiscal year. We have proposed unprecedented budget cuts, employee furloughs and other painful adjustments in this budget to cope with another budget shortfall of $44.8 million next year. Looking further into the future, preliminary projections of declining revenues and increasing costs suggest we can anticipate yet another budget shortfall of more than $31 million in fiscal year 2011-2012.

It is absolutely clear we must roll back government, reverse its growth and make it more affordable. We have led the way in the Office of Management, where we cut overall spending by 4 percent in my first seven months in office, cut spending by another 29 percent this year, and proposed yet another 9.3 percent spending reduction in the year ahead. We reduced salaries and wages in the Mayor’s office by 17 percent this year when my staff accepted the first furloughs of any County government employees. We will cut spending on salaries in the Mayor’s Office by another 5.9 percent in the year ahead. These changes represent a total savings of $863,392 since we took office.

To further reduce County spending, this revised budget proposal incorporates an additional $1,852,137 in savings achieved through the furloughs of United Public Workers union members who are employed by the County. When combined with the Hawai‘i Government Employees Association furloughs outlined in our previous budget submittal on March 1, we expect to save a total of about $7 million in the coming year through the twice-a-month furloughs of County workers. Imposing furloughs was a difficult step to take, but it allows the County to avoid the layoffs that have affected some state workers. The furlough plan includes elected officials, appointees and excluded managerial employees, and represents a 9.23 percent pay reduction for all affected employees.

These furloughs will touch every County department, and we recognize the furloughs will cause hardship for some employees and their families. We are asking our public employees to share in the kinds of sacrifices that have been imposed on so many in the private sector during these difficult times. At the same time, we ask our public workers to renew their commitment to public service. We owe that to the community we serve.

We have imposed cuts across the entire spectrum of County government. All County departments were instructed to reduce their budgets by 5 percent last fiscal year, and then to cut another 10 percent in the current budget year. Now, for the new budget year that begins July 1, departments were asked to reduce expenditures even more, by up to 20 percent. We also froze step increases in pay for all managerial and appointed employees.

This year we unfunded 55 vacant positions, which was the largest number of positions ever to be unfunded in a single County budget. In our new FY 2010-11 budget, we propose unfunding even more — an additional 70 positions. That’s an unprecedented total of 125 positions unfunded in the first two years of this administration.

Apart from unfunding vacant positions, we also had 95 fewer “warm bodies” working for the County this spring than at the beginning of my administration because of our firm adherence to hiring restrictions and attrition to shrink the County workforce. Our restrictions in hiring and elimination of vacant funded positions over the past 17 months have allowed us to shrink the number of funded County positions nearly to the fiscal year 2005-2006 level.

Our proposed tax rates would also take us back to fiscal year 2005-2006. We propose in this budget submittal to return to the property tax rates of fiscal year 2005-2006 for most categories, which will result in the County collecting slightly less in total property tax revenue next year as compared with this year. To protect our homeowners, we are proposing no increase in the homeowner tax rate. We also plan to keep the affordable rental tax rate the same to help maintain the stock of affordable housing for our residents.

We are also extending targeted tax relief and additional resources to the agricultural industries in our community. The hard truth is that if we stand by while our diversified agriculture sector struggles through this recession, we may lose our small farmers forever. We must support agricultural initiatives including the Kapulena agricultural park on 1,739 acres of County-owned land, which will become the largest agricultural park in the state when it is complete. It will help our residents to launch new initiatives in diversified agriculture and foster development of the grass-finished beef industry. The proposed agricultural tax plan will result in a reduction of more than 4 percent in the average per-parcel property tax on agricultural lands, which will benefit our farmers.

At the same time, we must develop and launch a series of initiatives to help restore our local economy to robust good health, and to lay the groundwork for future successes in the County of Hawai‘i. To that end, this budget incorporates financial incentives to encourage the airlines to fill the void left by the suspension of Japan Air Lines’ direct service from Narita to Kona. Airlift is essential to our small businesses, our hotels and our working families, and we intend to pursue restoration of direct flights with all of our partners in the visitor, tour and hotel industries. Our proposed tax plan for hotels and resorts will result in a reduction in the average tax per parcel, providing relief to the largest employers of our working families.

This budget was crafted to preserve public safety and other essential core services today, while positioning the County to navigate the new difficulties we know will confront us tomorrow. We have cut overtime, travel, police cadet scholarships and more.  We have eliminated most equipment purchases. We have also implemented furlough days for HGEA, UPW, exempt and appointed employees, and unfunded many positions. This budget represents a decrease in County spending on activities such as General Government, and increases the share of County resources devoted to core functions such as Public Safety, Highways and Streets, and Health, Education and Welfare.

We have honored our commitment to maintaining nutrition and other services for seniors, and have preserved programs for our children and youth. This budget continues the County’s free, island-wide bus service, and maintains County spending of $1.5 million per year in support of non-profit organizations that deliver social services. This continuing realignment in County spending is gradually shifting County resources to the essential services that are most important to our residents.

REAL PROPERTY TAX

Real property tax assessments have been certified at $25.5 billion. The values are 9.35 percent less, or $2.63 billion, than fiscal year 2009-2010 assessments and 13.51 percent or $3.99 billion less than FY 2008-09 assessments. As stated in our March 1, 2010 submittal, the County is unable to maintain essential, core services with a $23 million reduction in revenues that would result from maintaining current real property tax rates.

We are proposing a modified version of the fiscal year 2005-2006 real property tax rates that would leave the homeowner and affordable rental tax rates intact. The average per parcel tax collection for agriculture, commercial, and hotel and resort classifications will be reduced to keep our small businesses strong. The proposed rates identified (Attachment 1) would result in real property tax revenue of $215,154,049, slightly below the collections budgeted for the current year.

VACANT POSITIONS

After unfunding 55 positions in the fiscal year 2009-2010 budget, we have continued to review funded vacant positions to determine those that can be safely unfunded or partially funded for the upcoming budget year without adversely impacting County operations and services to the public beyond an acceptable level. This budget reflects the unfunding of 70 additional positions and partial funding of 43 more positions in fiscal year 2010-2011. Partial funding represents a reduction in the salary budget for a position that may be vacant for a portion of the year. The total value of the unfunded positions, adjusted for furloughs, amounts to $2,770,356.

The review process involved identifying funded vacant positions that were public safety, grant funded, and special revenue fund positions, as well as positions in the legislative branch. In addition to the importance of retaining funding for public safety purposes, it was recognized that most vacant positions in the Police and Fire departments are offset by new recruits, which are not separately funded. Positions that are funded by grants or special revenue funds do not impact the general fund budget. The remaining funded vacant positions were carefully reviewed individually.

Normally, funds not expended because a position is temporarily vacant are used to cover the cost of vacation payouts for retirees and for the temporary assignment or overtime pay that may result from covering the vacant position until it can be filled. The savings resulting from unfunding additional general fund positions after the March 1, 2010 budget submittal have been placed in the general fund provision for cash-in-lieu of vacation account.

OPERATIONAL CHANGES

Organizational changes to be implemented July 1, 2010, will place the Automotive division under the Mass Transit Agency. This will consolidate similar activities in one department, particularly the vehicle repair activities, allowing for increased efficiency in processing equipment for repairs and fuel and vehicle usage countywide. No new positions have been added as a result of this re-organization, although one previously unfunded position will be budgeted for the coming year.

The amended budget also restores funding for the Hawai`i County Band and West Hawai`i band for fiscal year 2010-2011. Our community demonstrated its strong support for this venerable institution, and we offer the band an opportunity to make the transition from a solely County-funded program to an institution that will benefit both from public and private support in the years ahead. To that end, this administration will pursue an initiative to convert the band to private non-profit status so that it may harness its widespread community support in a way that also eases the burden on County taxpayers.

The County recognizes the importance of maintaining our island as a safe, clean, beautiful place to live and to visit. In response to requests from the public, this budget also provides funding to increase the hours of our solid waste transfer stations so that each station will be open for a minimum of three days per week for 12 hours per day. My administration is focused on a more comprehensive response to solid waste disposal and illegal dumping issues that includes education, tough anti-littering legislation and increased enforcement of litter laws.

FUND BALANCE

The fund balance submitted with this budget is estimated at $14,313,937. Fund balance carry-forward for any given year is not known until all adjustments are posted and funds are closed several months after the fiscal year ends. Projection of upcoming receipts and expenditures is very difficult and actual transactions can vary by large amounts. This can be difficult in the best of years, but when all expenses have already been cut extensively there are no further equipment purchases to defer, no further travel or training to postpone, no further projects to cancel. The impact of entering a new budget cycle with an over-estimated fund balance carry-forward would be a disruption of planned operations. That is why we believe this estimate cannot be increased.

DETAILS

In arriving at this amended budget, the Administration identified several areas where expenditures could be further reduced, or where increases were appropriate. Specific changes are identified below.

Significant Changes to March 1, 2010 Revenue Estimates

  • Fund Balance Carryover – Carryover projections have increased by $1,655,937, which represents an increase in current year expenditure savings as a result of restrictions on filling vacant positions, reducing travel and virtually eliminating equipment purchases.

Significant Changes to March 1, 2010 Expenditure Estimates

General Fund

  • Salary & Wages – Budgets in various departments were reduced by a total of $737,392 due to the implementation of furlough days for UPW employees.
  • Research & Development – Budgets for agriculture and tourism development have been increased by $300,000 each to provide additional funding for stimulating these important local resources and economic engines.
  • Public Works – The department’s budget decrease includes $4,469,049 as a result of transferring the Automotive division to the Transportation agency.
  • Mass Transit – The agency budget increase includes $4,461,126 as a result of the transfer of the Automotive division from Public Works.
  • Transfer to Solid Waste — The subsidy to the solid waste fund has been increased by a net amount of $100,559 and will provide funding for extended hours at transfer stations island-wide. This subsidy is $5,694,189 lower than the subsidy provided in the current fiscal year.
  • Employee Benefits – A net increase of $1,646,000 reflects a projected 26% increase in premiums for active employee health insurance from the Employer Union Trust Fund, which is partially offset by reductions in retirement benefits and FICA costs.
  • Vacant Positions – We originally proposed in March to unfund 62 vacant positions, excluding the bands. This amended budget proposal includes a total of 70 positions that have been unfunded. All remaining funded positions are considered to be essential to County operations, or they have an existing incumbent temporarily assigned to a worker compensation position or in some other temporary appointment.

Position Changes from March 1, 2010 Budget Proposal

There have been no positions added or deleted in this amended budget proposal.

CONCLUSION

The County of Hawai‘i continues to face great economic challenges, and no one can say with any certainty when we will enjoy a full recovery from this national and global recession. We are all witness to the effects of the weak economy around us, but we also recognize the assets and advantages that we are blessed with. We know that our community is resilient and resourceful, and we are committed to helping one another through this difficult time.

This budget represents difficult choices, cautious optimism, and realistic expectations for a recovery we know will come. We know our island economy will rebound, but we must conserve our resources and carefully target our economic development initiatives to benefit those sectors where our assistance will yield the greatest results.

At the same time, we must increase government efficiency to meet the growing demand for public safety, transportation services, and programs for seniors and children. We need to stretch our resources to protect the most vulnerable among us while preparing our community for a better, more prosperous future.

With your help, we can do all of this and still reduce spending to live within our means. This budget proposal would spend less next year than we are budgeted to spend this year, but it will provide public services at current levels. Employees and vendors will continue to be paid on a timely basis. We will continue to meet all of our financial obligations, maintain our strong financial ratings and increase our borrowing power, providing the County with a strong foundation to confront the challenges we collectively face.

My staff and I welcome the opportunity to discuss this budget in further detail with you and to answer any concerns that you may have. Thank you for you consideration.

Aloha,

William P. Kenoi

MAYOR

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