State spending gatekeepers at the Legislature have put a big stamp on 91直播’s first batch “Green Fee” projects to be funded by a new tourism impact fee, shunting about 40% of recommendations from an advisory council.
Thirty state lawmakers agreed late Wednesday afternoon on a list of about 90 initial Green Fee projects totaling $129 million to protect natural resources, mitigate disaster risk and improve visitor experiences.
About 60% of the new list was recommended by a 10-member Green Fee Advisory Council established in August by Gov. Josh Green, according to the council.
The governor forwarded an initial list of proposed projects to the Legislature in January as part of his budget appropriation recommendations under rules of the program, which was envisioned by the governor and created by the Legislature last year.
But the 76-member Legislature has the final say on state government appropriations, and is expected to pass the budget bill next week with the new list of Green Fee projects.
Jeff Mikulina, chair of the advisory council and executive director of Climate 91直播 who also previously led the Blue Planet Foundation, said that in his view about 20 out of roughly 40 Green Fee projects added by lawmakers aren’t aligned with the intent of the program.
“This is a precedent-setting investment in the future of our state, and we’re getting on base instead of hitting it out of the park,” he said in an email.
Spending for Green Fee projects has to run through state agencies, but can include work done by the agencies, nonprofits and community groups. The advisory council received over 500 project requests exceeding $2 billion in funding from such entities.
In March, the House Finance Committee chaired by Rep. Chris Todd (D, Hilo-Keaau-Ainaloa) made no changes to Green Fee projects except for accounting expenses.
But the Senate Ways and Means Committee chaired by Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz (D, Mililani-Wahiawa-Whitmore Village) earlier this month took exception to many recommendations and came up with replacements.
Projects added by Ways and Means included $800,000 for Waipahu High School to comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, $350,000 for a sports and signature events study by the 91直播 Tourism Authority, and $10.9 million for West Kauai water system safety and preparedness.
On Wednesday, the team of House and Senate negotiators charged with producing a compromise draft of the budget bill, House Bill 1800, maintained those three projects and further tweaked the Green Fee list.
New additions made by the negotiating team led by Todd and Dela Cruz include $250,000 for a cattle slaughterhouse, $500,000 for Lahaina small boat harbor, $500,000 for ungulate control in West Maui, $500,000 for Wailupe stream flood mitigation and $1.2 million for a forage drying facility.
Some projects added by Ways and Means were eliminated by the negotiating team, including $500,000 for fire ant containment, $650,000 for a Kure Atoll ecological restoration field station, $700,000 for the Waikiki Aquarium and $2 million for the 91直播 Invasive Species Council.
The negotiating team also altered the size of appropriations for some projects introduced by Ways and Means. For instance, a $12 million appropriation for a food and product innovation network was reduced to $7.1 million, and a $5 million appropriation for urban extreme heat reduction was slashed to $1.5 million. Also, a $500,000 appropriation for environment and climate coordination at the East West Center was increased to $1 million.
Some projects recommended by the advisory council and approved by the legislative budget negotiators also had changes made to appropriation amounts. For instance, Kaanapali Beach restoration was cut to $1 million from $4 million, general beach restoration was cut to $8 million from $15 million, and improvements and fire mitigation at state parks was cut to $4.3 million from $9.6 million.
The budget negotiating team also reversed some project cuts intended by Ways and Means, including $1 million for conversion of cesspools at Honaunau on 91直播 Island and $1.6 million to protect native birds from threats including mosquito-born avian malaria.
Some reversals were made but with lower funding levels than the advisory council recommended, including $5.7 million instead of $6 million for the 91直播 Wildfire Risk Reduction and Firewise Communities programs, $6.6 million instead of $10.6 million to support community-driven reforestation and natural habitat improvement work, and $4 million instead of $5 million for homeowners to reduce high-wind damage risks.
Close to 15 projects recommended by the advisory council were cut from the list. They included $7.6 million for community-led visitor education and stewardship systems, $1 million to create stockpiles of long-stable meals in strategic community sites for disaster response, and $500,000 for West Maui climate modeling.
In all, the council calculated that $51 million, or about 40% of the $129 million total in project funding it recommended, was supplanted.
Dela Cruz previously said a lot of the council-recommended projects weren’t set up to timely spend funds, and thus would leave unused appropriations while other more-ready qualified projects sought by state agencies go unfunded.
“The whole thing is, don’t hold onto money that the state is just going to accumulate,” he said.
Dela Cruz also said some projects recommended by the council involving community organizations are more appropriately funded by state grants under a competitive annual awards process governed by the Legislature.
Mikulina said readiness of projects was one of the council’s priority considerations, and that the legislation creating the Green Fee program was designed to include community projects.
Program rules require that projects meet certain objectives that include protecting natural resources, improving the resilience of structures against environmental conditions that include sea-level rise and disasters, improving the visitor experience, and mitigating impacts of tourism on the natural environment.
Mikulina said there are some projects added to the budget bill now that he said require “great imagination” to view as satisfying the intent of the Green Fee program.
“I’d argue they are not foundational to the promise of the Green Fee, which was investing in climate risk reduction and supporting regenerative tourism and environmental stewardship,” he said.
Revenue for the Green Fee program is being generated by a higher and expanded state Transient Accommodations Tax that went into effect Jan. 1. The state Department of Taxation projects the additional revenue will amount to $87 million annually.
The initial batch of projects budgeted for $129 million is for the second half of the current fiscal year running from Jan. 1 to June 30, and next fiscal year.
