Governor Abercrombie has directed all state departments to review their activities in order to identify “programs, services, and/or activities for possible elimination that, although well-intentioned, are of marginal benefit, low-performing, or of lesser priority.”
In a June 16 memo, Abercrombie said he wants to avoid across-the-board cuts and instead eliminate entire programs, with additional savings to come from benefit cuts or more restrictive eligibility requirements in state services.
Departments are being asked to present proposals for cuts equal to 5% of their general fund appropriations. The University of Hawaii and the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation are being asked for contingency plans for cuts of $10 million to $20 million.
Departments are directed to submit their proposed budget cuts to the Department of Budget and Finance by July 8.
According to the memo:
Difficult and painful decisions must be made for this review, but the alternatives are worse–more vacant positions, more deferred maintenance or payments, etc., for every program and service. Standard “horizontal” budget adjustments such as keeping positions vacant, deferral of payments, deferral of required maintenance, or unspecified lump sum adjustments are not options.
The budget passed by the legislature requires the governor to make $50 million in cuts in each of the next two fiscal years in order to fund health insurance premium payments for state workers.
Here’s the provision from the budget (HB200):
SECTION 97. Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, the director of finance, with the approval of the governor, shall transfer into health premium payments – state (BUF 761) $50,000,000 for fiscal year 2011-2012 and $50,000,000 for fiscal year 2012-2013; provided further that in making each transfer, the governor shall consider the legislature’s intent that the administration assess state needs and make appropriate reductions to programs that are consistent with an effort to reprioritize state government; provided further that the governor shall submit a report to the legislature within five days of each use of this authority that shall include the date of the assessment, the amount of the assessment, the program ID from which funds were assessed, a detailed explanation of the reason for which funds were transferred from a particular program ID, including a detailed report of any performance measurements or standards used in evaluating such assessment, and the impact to the program ID from which funds are transferred; from and provided further that the governor shall submit to the legislature a summary report for all transfers by December 1 for the previous twelve-month period.
Abercrombie’s memo includes 14 criteria to be used in determining whether programs can be eliminated. At the top of the list of criteria:
A. Program is not a required government function.
B. Program is not a New Day Plan priority.
C. Program may be privatized or accomplished by the private sector.
D. Another level of government (federal or county) has primary authority and/or responsibility for the program.
E. Requirements and/or objectives behind original establishment of program have been eliminated or significantly reduced but program and/or service continues.
F. Program serves more as another layer of oversight than direct service delivery or critical service support.
G. Program has limited impact and/or serves a largely advisory function.
Suggestions are also presented for cutting costs where programs can’t simply be eliminated. Suggestions include tightening program eligibility, reducing program benefits (“such as reducing frequency of services, or eliminating low priority services”), establishing co-payments, consolidating operations, and amending statutes or rules to eliminate requirements.
Click here to read the governor’s memo.
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what would really be left of DBEDT?
I get a chill everytime I read the word, “privatizing”!
I rarely agree with Abercrombie about anything. But this time I agree wholeheartedly. Across-the-board percentage cuts merely keep all the top bureaucrats in place. It’s necessary to prioritize which functions of state government are most important and which can be totally eliminated. The criteria for prioritizing seem to be carefully thought out, and are likely to lead to wise decisions if they are faithfully implemented. I suppose the socialists won’t like privatizing some functions; but privatizing also saves the taxpayers from paying for the outrageous pensions government workers enjoy; and encourages competitive bidding which will lower costs.
A couple of good questions to ask are how this will affect the thinking of both the general population and of the counties.
One often hears the enthusiastic comment “This will create a whole new level of government jobs in the community” in discussions of the big projects on Oahu. Unlike like almost any other society, here in Hawaii a large segment of the population seems to imagine that the government is an infinite source of jobs and patronage. The notion that everything in this world is finite and limited is a revolutionary insight for those who have a kind of magical view of the world. That conceptual revolution could be at hand.
In fact, since the official end of the recession in 2009, the term “the new normal” has been in circulation nationally, but its only been in the past few months in Hawaii that one finds that realization “Well, this is it, this is the shape of things to come….” To continue with that realization and line of reasoning that everything is limited, one would realize that to create new government jobs now would be to confront the need to eliminate other government jobs. What will this mean for support among government workers of big government projects?
Moreover, if the State, now run by a liberal, is in what seems to be a panic and is hoping to make vertical cuts, what will be the county response? Counties can go bankrupt, unlike States. This should serve as a wakeup call to the counties.
Looks like you scooped the Starved of News again. http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/124452354.html
Civil Beat ran an article a while back contemplating the efficiency and transparency of a unicameral legislature.
http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2011/06/13/11185-should-hawaii-consider-a-unicameral-legislature/
Perhaps even if there was a solid consensus in Hawaii to transition to a unicameral legislature, it would be just impossible to achieve. It would just be too complicated for Hawaii, even when places like Nebraska can achieve make the transition.
Moreover, in a state where economic opportunities are limited, politics is a major path to affluence and power when one does not have the boldness to, say, move to Chicago and run for President or move to California and start eBay. Nobody in power would want to limit the number of political positions, especially people like Rod Tam who need the part-time work and the lunch vouchers (seriously).
What sort of modified version of a unicameral legislature could Hawaii adopt that would skirt around the grim realities of Hawaii’s political culture?
Perhaps the State legislature could focus its efforts along the lines of a division of labor, with one of the chambers focusing on issues that are usually considered economic and the other chamber dealing with cultural issues (civil unions, medical marijuana, etc.). Each chamber would have to bite the bullet and not deal with the issues that the other chamber would be dealing with.
I suspect that even this is not possible in Hawaii. In a big city, everything is professional, people focus on their own area of concern and try to develop their own expertise on an issue and sell themselves as experts. In contrast, in a small town culture everyone wants to get into everyone else’s business and there is a real jealousy and pettiness and personalization of issues that is the flip side of friendliness and warmth. It’s only in a profound and prolonged crisis that people will snap into a sober realization that “We need to do something differently….”. I don’t think Hawaii is there yet.
This raises another possibility. Grand visions tend to fall apart. This is especially true in a small town without a high level of expertise or experience (and some would say that in Hawaii we don’t even have a basic proficiency in doing the simplest things). So there’s a real chance that the big projects that have been pushed in the past few years just ain’t gonna happen. Same is true with the Governor’s big plans. We need to think now how we are going to pick up the pieces after all this falls apart.
I think already ambitious local politicians are figuring out ways to position themselves as Abercrombie becomes more unpopular (the way Abercrombie’s press secretary seems to be segueing into a careers as a TV producer). The educated class needs to do the same in terms of thinking about policy after “Hurricane Neil” has left the state in a state of disrepair. A lot of political and financial capital is about to be expended to no real end.
Moreover, the left wing of the local Democratic Party, after its first visitation in the gubernatorial office, could become be more tarnished in the popular mind than the dominant faction was after the Waihee years (which made Lingle possible).
What will life be like after Hurricane Neil?
thanks again Ben C. — it really is too bad that a large unselfish group can’t see what you are saying and organize an urgent effort to fix the mess we are in
but I believe you are correct, we will be just circling our own personal wagons until it is too late — then we can only hope that our children discover the perseverance and humility that our parents and grandparents had so they can fix the mess the terrible mess that has been created
This frank and original approach to a state’s government hasn’t been tried since Napoleon – and even July 8 is not too early for such mutually agreeable action readied to be applied as a major no-drama template to fully 49 other states.
Even earlier than that could such freshly original Jeffersonian-level and demonstrably needed conceptual sustainability be exported gladly to a torrent of gridlocked budgets like those of Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain.
Always with the blame of someone else, waiting for answers from those given the power to continue the cycle: wash rinse dry.
Best consider learning what a kilowatt hour is by using less, growing food and forming community now. It’s everyone’s hurricane.
Dean Little