Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 2, 1 February 2016 — Page 11 Advertisements Column 1 [ADVERTISEMENT]

Upho(d Constitution, Fund Hawaiian Homes

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'Āina Ho'opulapula, He Kuleana. H Hawaiian Home Lands HAWAIIAH HOMES COMMISSIOH ■ DEPARTMEMT OF HAWAIIAH HOME LAMDS dhhl.hawaii.gov E3EB" *

Yet the fight for funding continues for DHHL and the beneficiaries we serve. Due to a perpetual laek of sufficient state funding, DHHL continues to use its trust resources to pay for state salaries and expenses, 37 years after the constitution was amended to prevent exactly that. Before the 1978 Constitutional Convention the Hawai'i State Legislature had the discretion to fund (or not fund) the DHHL. ConCon delegates on the Hawaiian Affairs Committee raised concerns that DHHL was using its own funds to pay for its operating expenses due to the uncertainty of general funding from the state. As a result, the committee proposed the state's constitution be amended to make funding for DHHL and its programs mandatory, and not discretionary. The following constitutional amendment was approved by Hawai'i voters in 1979: "The legislature frtay shall make sufficient sums available for the following purposes: (1) lots; (2) loans; (3) rehabilitation projects to improve the general welfare and conditions of native Hawaiians; and (A) the administrative and operating budget of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands." - Article XII Section 1 Despite the constitutional amendment, the legislature provided no general funds to the department for four years prior to 2012, prompting

six native Hawaiian beneficiaries to file suit against the state in 2007 forfailing to sufficiently fund the DHHL as mandated by the Hawaii Constitution, and against the Hawaiian Home Commission for failing to seekfrom the Legislature all the funding the state is reguired to provide. The case worked its way through the court system, and in May 2012, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs Richard "Dickie" Nelson III, Keli'i "Skippy" loane, Sherilyn Adams, Kaliko Chun,James Akiona, and Charles Aipia. The ruling concluded while the court cannot determine sufficient sums for the first three purposes, they could determine what constitutes "sufficientsums" for DHHL's administrative and operating expenses. E^^n On November 27, 2015, First Circuit Court JudgeJeanette Castagnetti ruled, "The legislature has failed to appropriate sufficient sums to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for its administrative and operating budget in violation of its constitutional duty to do so." As a result, the Court ordered the State fu[fill its constitutional kuleana by appropriating more than $28 million in general funds to DHHL in fiscal year 2015-16 for its administrative and operating budget. While the court order is a win for beneficiaries, it does not egual funding until the legislature approves the budget. If qeneral funds pay for PHHL operations, then every dollar earned on Hawaiian home lands ean be used to serve beneficiaries and their famiUes, as called for in the Hawai'i State Constitution.