If you have access to the Star-Advertiser, don’t miss Richard Borreca’s column today, “UH finances are getting murkier and more perilous.”

Borreca adds more context to the financial fantasy plan that’s been put forward by athletic director Ben Jay.

Good, but before fans start waving their checkbooks like pompoms, some notice should be paid to the UH in general and West Oahu in particular.

UH’s own financial projections for the newest campus show that by fiscal year 2019-20, West Oahu will have an operational deficit of $30 million.

Much of it is caused by an $18 million loan the UH took out in May 2012. The money was loaned to UH from a Hawaii limited partnership associated with CanAm Enterprises. UH is paying $270,000 a year in interest for five years and then it must pay back the loan.

Borreca refers to a letter from former West Oahu Chancellor Gene Awakuni to Senator Maile Shimabukuro, in which Awakuni says there’s no easy way to pay off the loan when it comes due.

In his letter, Awakuni listed several ways to pay off the loan: First is to simply sell revenue bonds; second would be to sell the as-yet-unbuilt administration building “and use the funds to pay off the loan with a lease-back provision”; and the third would be to sell some of the non-campus land owned by West Oahu in the area.

This is the same $18 million loan that prompted my Civil Beat column back in October 2012 (“Hawaii Monitor: Patronage Games“).

As I reported at that time:

“The West Oahu loan was put together by New York-based CanAm Enterprises using the federal EB-5 Visa program, which offers foreign investors a path to a “green card” and permanent U.S. residency for themselves and their families in exchange for an investment of $500,000 in a qualified local company or project.”

And:

CanAm administers the Hawaii Regional Center, the state’s EB-5 program, under the terms of an exclusive 5-year contract awarded in 2008 by the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. The contract was approved and signed by then-director Ted Liu, a Lingle appointee.

CanAm hired a local representative to be their Hawaii contact, and tracking that decision led me to more of the story.

A year after the contract was signed, CanAm was ramping up its Hawaii program when Liu suggested the company hire Rabbi Itchel Krasnjansky as its local representative.

Krasnjansky, along with his wife, Pearl, are primarily known as leaders of the Orthodox Jewish organization, Chabad Lubavitch of Hawaii, for over two decades. The group now offers religious services, as well as a Hebrew school, a Kosher deli, and a community center in a side room on the main floor of the Ala Moana Hotel formerly occupied by a nightclub.

Perhaps more relevant were his strong ties with Liu’s boss, then-Gov. Lingle, who he describes as a personal friend and who met with the Rabbi weekly to study the Torah during her two terms as governor. Krasnjansky’s Chabad Lubavitch was invited to host a kosher Seder at Washington Place each year on the Jewish Passover holiday, another indicator of their close ties to the governor.

Krasnjansky also had the governor’s ear on the issue of civil unions, which he strongly opposed and was later described as a key advisor behind her decision to veto HB444 during the 2010 legislative session.

Liu’s recommendation, noted later in a company report, likely carried considerable weight. Following several conference calls and a meeting in New York, Krasnjansky was hired.

There’s more, but you can click through to Civil Beat for the whole column.

If you have trouble, leave a comment and I’ll repost the full column here.