Video by David Corrigan
HILO, Hawaii – The Hawaii County Council passed an operating budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year on Wednesday, and Mayor Billy Kenoi is not happy with it.
The mayor would not say if he would use his power to veto the bill, but he did say he was “baffled” by the council’s actions during an impromptu press conference immediately after the council adjourned.
The mayor had originally proposed a $367 million spending plan, but the council cut millions in order to partially fund a deferred payment to gasB 45 – a payment designed to pre-fund future obligations the county has incurred to fund retirement health care in the future – a $20 million expense.
“It was a thousand pound gorilla,” Council Chair Dominic Yagong said of the looming payment.
“I think we’ve dona a pretty good job of addressing that issue,” said South Kona councilwoman and finance committee chair Brenda Ford of the gasB 45 debt. “Are there still problems in the budget as far as I’m concerned, absolutely.”
“I withdrew a lot of amendments…” said Ford, “because Mr. Yagong proposed a 5.6 million across the board reduction, that the mayor’s going to have to deal with. He didn’t deal with that before he sent the budget to us. And this council has now dealt with it.”
“You cannot expect big savings,” said council chair Yagong, “if everything you are adjusting is to pay a big expense. A 3% difference is because the intention was to deal with the deferral.”
On Tuesday, the council added money for police radios, an amendment introduced by Ford.
Yagong thanked the council, staff and clerk for all their hard work on the matter.
But in the mayor’s office an hour or so later, the feelings were far from celebratory.
“Either the council did not know where to cut,” Kenoi said, “or did not know how to cut, or were afraid to make the difficult decisions to reduce the size and cost of government. All the council did was create a negative account, and put $5.6 million in that account. And we can’t find any precedent for that.”
The cuts the council did make were not looked upon any more favorably, like the $500,000 from the West Hawaii golf subsidy which Kenoi said was “blatantly unfair to the people of West Hawaii.”
The mayor has 10 days from receipt of the approved budget to veto, approve, or let pass without his signature.
Leaders share opinion on budget decisions
|
Get
the Flash Player to see this player. June 2, 2011 - Hilo, Hawaii North Kohala councilman Pete Hofman shares his thoughts on the Hawaii County budget, moments before the governing body votes to approve it. |
| June 2, 2011 - Hilo, Hawaii South Kona councilwoman and finance committee chair Brenda Ford speaks about the budget decisions that were made. |
|
Get
the Flash Player to see this player.
June 2, 2011 - Hilo, Hawaii
Hawaii County Council chair Dominic Yagong shares his thoughts on the council budget, which passed second and final reading on Tuesday. |
|
Get
the Flash Player to see this player.
June 2, 2011 - Hilo, Hawaii
Mayor Billy Kenoi holds a press conference in his office right after the council votes to approve of the budget. The mayor says the council's retooling of the budget has left him "baffled" and "outraged". |
If you think things of this nature are unfair for you, Know this, and know it well.
In a court of law the judge sits on the bench, look up the word bench in a Latin dictionary and you will see that the word bench is a Latin word for a Bank.
The whole system is based on money, and who has the most money. The judge will always go with the flow on who has the most money because he of she represents the bank.
Think about it, the word system is a Roman word for sewer, this is why we use the phrase rat race, because we are all rats in the system that is full of crap and corruption.
David.