LOS ANGELES — Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie announced a plan to fix an "inconsistency" of $444 million between the state budget bill and the bond authorization bill passed by the state legislature.
The conflict is preventing each bill from being signed into law, according to Attorney General David Louie. The state legislature passed the $12.1 billion fiscal 2014-15 supplemental budget bill in April.
"The proposed solution is the most efficient path to resolving this situation without the need for any additional costs to the taxpayer," Abercrombie said in a prepared statement Monday. "I have consulted with the Speaker of the House, Senate President and the Department of Education. Working together, we believe we can enter the new fiscal year without a functional budget."
Abercrombie's proposed solution would temporarily reduce the general bond obligation appropriation of the State Educational Facilities Improvement projects through a line-item reduction in the budget bill. The total amount of bond projects authorized in the budget bill will therefore not exceed the amount certified in the bond declaration bill.
Abercrombie's plan assumes the legislature will make whole the amount reduced from the SEFI authorization when it reconvenes in regular session in January. The DOE confirmed that it will plan to minimize impacts on projects already in the queue through a degree of project management and coordination that was not previously anticipated, according to the governor.
"We were able to pinpoint specific areas that were omitted in the bills passed by the legislature and have concluded that it will require the governor to reconcile these bills in order to begin the new fiscal year, which starts July 1, with a working supplemental budget," said state Director of Finance Kalbert Young.
