Mahealani Wendt, executive director of Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. with NHLC staff attorneys Alan Murakami and Moses Haia appealed to lawmakers to restore OHA funding at a news conference in April. Loss of funding to OHA would have severely impacted grants to NHLC, Alu Like and other Hawaiian organizations. Behind them, Keiki Kalima, 8, hoists a Hawaiian flag. – Photo: Lisa Asato

STATE LEGISLATURE:
OHA budget approved;
Kahana 'ohana safe;
past-due revenues unresolved

By Lisa Asato & Liza Simon / Ka Wai Ola Loa

The fate of more than 200 bills lies in the hands of Gov. Linda Lingle now that the state Legislature has had its say on everything from the state budget to OHA's budget to ceded lands and more. Here we highlight several bills affecting the Native Hawaiian community.

Lingle has until July 14 to sign, veto or allow the bills to become law without her signature.

For more on the legislative session, read the June issue of Ka Wai Ola as various Capitol observers weigh in on the 2009 Legislature and grade the lawmakers' actions on issues affecting Kanaka Maoli ranging from health to the environment to legal issues.

OHA'S BUDGET APPROVED

After weeks of uncertainty over whether state lawmakers would slash OHA's budget to zero, the legislature approved a bill that would instead cut OHA's budget by 20 percent for the next two fiscal years, keeping it in line with budget cuts faced by other state agencies.

Under the bill awaiting approval by Lingle, OHA will receive $2.4 million in general funds for each fiscal year through June 30, 2011. The state House proposed a 20 percent cut in light of the budget deficit while the Senate's proposed to zero out OHA's budget.

OHA said it had no problem working with lawmakers to address the state's financial situation but eliminating all of the $3 million in general funds from its budget would mean that services and advocacy for its Native Hawaiian beneficiaries would suffer especially in areas of legal services, educational enrichment programs and social services.

"The fact that OHA's budget has now been approved is a positive thing," said OHA Chairperson Haunani Apoliona. "Now we can move on to do the business of our beneficiaries."

The Senate agreed to the 20 percent budget cut on the condition that OHA give the state a portion of a 2006 settlement in legal fees it received from the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. stemming from a lawsuit regarding the Hōkūliʻa development on Hawaiʻi Island.

"It is appropriate that any funds realized as a result of legal action taken by the contracted legal services provider be shared equally by the two organizations responsible for the funding these legal services: the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the State of Hawaiʻi," conference committee co-chair Mele Carroll said as conferees voted 5-1 to approve the bill.

The budget also includes two new provisos outlining that OHA provide matching trust fund appropriations for two programs: a research and training program for Native Hawaiian students of the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology, and the Achieving the Dream initiative for Native Hawaiian students at Hawai'i Community College.

Last October, residents of Kahana Valley faced imminent eviction, eliciting vociferous protest at the Hawai'inuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge. - Photo: Blaine Fergerstrom

BILL WOULD STOP KAHANA EVICTIONS

Six families facing eviction from a cultural "living park" in Kahana Valley, Oʻahu have been granted a reprieve. House Bill 1552 places a two-year moratorium on evictions from Kahana Valley, Oʻahu, which were underway last year after state Attorney General Mark Bennett issued an opinion saying a state law bars new lease agreements in Kahana Valley after 1993.

The bill changes the law by authorizing the Department of Land and Natural Resources to grant long-term residential leases in state-owned Kahana Valley to qualified persons. In addition, the bill calls for the establishment of a planning council to develop a master plan for the 'Ahupua'a O Kahana Valley State Park.

The state created this mountain-to-sea living park, enabling 31 families - all descendants of original Kahana Valley residents - to remain there rent-free in exchange for participating in a public cultural interpretation and stewardship program.

The state in October 2008 began eviction proceedings against six families who had maintained residences there and claimed various ancestral ties to the valley. After the Hawaiian community and lawmakers joined forces to oppose the evictions, the state agreed to allow the legislature to seek a solution.

State lawmakers heard from many who complained that the state had failed to set clear policies to support the living park concept leading to unnecessary confusion over eligibility for residential leases in Kahana Valley. Some Kahana residents said in written testimony that they opposed both HB 1552 and SB 638, because the measures gave preference to the six families at the expense of the original lessees.

Meanwhile, proponents submitted testimony, urging support for the measure as key to providing Kahana residents with the tools needed to sustain important Native Hawaiian cultural practices in the unique environment of a living park.

State Sen. Clayton Hee's diagram of a Senate conference committee's proposal for settling Public Land Trust income and proceeds due to OHA. The bill, which died in conference committee in the final days of the Legislature, would have included a menu of options: a complete settlement of $251 million and 20 percent of the acreage of ceded lands — or, resolving 30 years of past-due claims with $200 million made up of cash, land or a combination of the two. Photo: Lisa Asato

PAST-DUE CEDED LAND REVENUE BILL DEAD

A bill proposing to resolve the State's decades-long obligation to Native Hawaiians over past-due revenues from the use of the public land trust came close to surviving this past legislative session. But with just hours left before a key legislative deadline, the bill did not make it out of a joint House and Senate conference committee.

"We are disappointed that the proposal to resolve the past-due revenue claims wasn't approved this year," OHA Communications Director Crystal Kua said. "We are hopeful a resolution of those claims will be approved next session and look forward to working with the Legislature to make that happen."

Senate Bill 995 proposed settling the amount the Office of Hawaiian Affairs should receive as its share of revenues from the state's use of the ceded lands. Under the bill, OHA Trustees would have been given the authority to choose between three different options.

One option offered to settle claims limited to the past three decades by providing OHA a $200 million package of cash and/or land parcels.

The parcels would be selected from a list of properties deemed to have culturally significance or revenue-generating potential. Lands on this list would have included upper Mauna Kea, Kalealoa, Kaka'ako Makai, La Mariana, Pier 60 at Sand Island, the Ala Wai Boat Harbor, Waikīkī Yacht Club, He'eia Meadowlands, Kahana Valley, Kaka'ako and all significant state-owned loko i'a — historic fishponds in public coastal areas.

Sen. Clayton Hee, chairman of the Hawaiian Affairs Committee, described SB 995 as "bold and innovative" but "hardly radical."

"It embraces offers of debt settlement by three Hawai'i Governors and also is reflective of (Attorney General Mark) Bennett's comments to the Supreme Court regarding the state Legislature's authority in making policy related to ceded lands."