HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.R. NO.

241

TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

 

urging the governor and the legislature to request and provide for sufficient funding for the department of hawaiian homesteads.

 

 

 


     WHEREAS, in 1920, the United States Congress enacted the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act to award ninety-nine year homestead leases to qualified native Hawaiians to recognize the severe disruptions in the political, social, and economic issues leading Hawaiians to the widespread loss of land; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 1959, the State of Hawai‘i, in a compact with the United States relating to the management and disposition of Hawaiian home lands, agreed that the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act would be adopted as part of the state constitution and "faithfully administered" for the benefit of native Hawaiian beneficiaries as a condition of attaining statehood and entry into the Union; and

 

     WHEREAS, this solemn promise was adopted as article XII, section 3, of the state constitution as a demonstration of the State's commitment to live up to the State's duties relating to Hawaiian home lands, imposed on the compact between the State and the United States; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 1978, the State ratified a constitutional amendment that required the Legislature to make "sufficient sums" available to pay for the operation of the Department of Hawaiian Home lands, including:

 

     (1)  Providing homesteads to every eligible beneficiary who applies in a timely manner;

 

     (2)  Funding farm, ranch, and aquaculture assistance programs to make homesteaders successful on their homesteads;

 

     (3)  Assisting homesteaders in community development programs under the Native Hawaiian Rehabilitation Fund; and

 

     (4)  Funding the administrative and operating budget of the Department; and

 

     WHEREAS, the explicit reason for adopting this constitutional amendment was to release the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands from its present burden of generating revenues through the general leasing of Hawaiian home lands to pay for the costs of the homestead program and free Hawaiian home lands for native Hawaiian beneficiaries, instead of being diverted to general leases to non-beneficiaries; and

 

     WHEREAS, the 1978 constitutional convention delegates intended to deny the Legislature any discretion in determining whether to provide "sufficient sums" to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands in light of the chronic lack of resources the Department previously faced; and

 

     WHEREAS, since 1978, no governor has sought to make available the level of "sufficient sums" necessary for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to perform all of its functions including the funding of its administrative budget in support of important trust work; and

 

     WHEREAS, these governors have systematically restricted the level of funding requested for appropriation by the Legislature on grounds other than that justified by the 1978 constitutional amendment requiring the provision of "sufficient sums" to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands; and

 

     WHEREAS, neither the Hawaiian Homes Commission nor the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has ever insisted that the State provide it with the constitutionally mandated "sufficient sums" that would enable the Department to stabilize or reduce the waiting list for homesteads; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 1995, the Legislature enacted Act 14, Session Laws of Hawaii 1995, in special session to authorize compensation to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for various illegal administrative acts that had previously deprived the Hawaiian home lands trust of land and revenues that should have been paid to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands between 1959 and 1988; and

 

     WHEREAS, Act 14 authorized, after negotiations between various offending state agencies, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, and an independent representative of native Hawaiian beneficiaries, payments of $30,000,000 per year to the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust Fund for the succeeding twenty years in order to eliminate any cloud in the former Hawaiian home lands trust that had been illegally conveyed out of the trust to private parties; and

 

     WHEREAS, Act 14 specifically precluded the State from asserting that these payments met any part of the Legislature's obligation to provide "sufficient sums" to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, as required under article XII, section 1 of the Hawaii constitution; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is expending much of its resources to develop commercial lands, sacrificing the time, energy, and resources that should be expended to place native Hawaiian beneficiaries on Hawaiian home lands; and

 

     WHEREAS, under the hope and presumption that revenues from the general leases to non-beneficiaries would pay for developing homesteads for native Hawaiians on other Hawaiian home lands, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has failed to objectively determine whether the commitment of lands for general leasing to non-beneficiaries will result in adequate compensation to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands will likely have to expend more money to develop any available Hawaiian home lands that were to accommodate those native Hawaiians who were denied the use of Hawaiian home lands made available to non-beneficiaries through general leases; and

 

     WHEREAS, the state administration provides funding to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands as low priority, relative to funding for other entities that include the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, which gets more than seventy times the funding that the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands receives, despite the constitutional mandate for "sufficient sums"; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2009, that the Governor and the Legislature are urged to acknowledge the State's trust responsibility to native Hawaiians under the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act and its constitutional duty to provide the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands with "sufficient sums" to fund its programs, loans, and administrative and operating budget, without compelling the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to issue general leases of Hawaii home to non-beneficiaries lands to raise revenues; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Governor, with cooperation from the Legislature, is requested to provide and release sufficient levels of funding for the administrative and operating budget of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, pursuant to which enjoys no such constitutional mandate for funding; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Hawaiian Homes Commission and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands are requested to seek from the Legislature an adequate level of funding so the Hawaiian Homes Commission and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands are released from the burden of general leasing to non-beneficiaries of Hawaiian home lands to generate revenues from risky commercial ventures; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, the Chairperson of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, who, in turn, is requested to transmit copies to Hui Kako‘o Aina Ho‘opulapula, the Sovereign Councils of the Hawaiian Homelands Assembly, Keaukaha Panaewa Farmers Association, and the Panaewa Hawaiian Home Lands Community Association, the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, and the members of Hawai‘i's Congressional delegation.

 

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title: 

Hawaiian Homelands; Adequate Funding