Budget committee advances FY26 operating budget with $14 million earmarked for sewer customer assistance

The Honolulu City Council Budget Committee on May 20 amended the executive operating budget (Bill 22 of 2025) to a CD2 that moves the measure forward to third reading and includes a $14,000,000 allocation in the sewer fund intended for a customer assistance program for low-income ratepayers.

The committee, chaired by Budget Chair Dos Santos Tam, said the CD2 reflects restorations and priority projects requested by council members while aiming to hold the administration accountable for carrying projects forward. Committee members said they worked with the administration to convert some positions and reassign funding sources to free up nearly $4,000,000 that, together with other adjustments, increases the customer-assistance pool to about $14,000,000.

Committee chair Dos Santos Tam said the draft attempts to strengthen public health and safety and to direct funding toward first-responder resources, parks improvements and constituent-priority projects. The chair told members the CD2 identifies $14,000,000 within the sewer fund to “defray the costs of whatever increases are coming within the confines of the sewer fund” and that the topic of sewer fees will be continued in a separate bill (Bill 16).

Floor Leader Brandon Cordero and other members pressed for clarity about restored positions and provisos that would tie project funding to implementation. Director Andy Kawano, Budget and Fiscal Services, warned that moving costs between funds affects cost-allocation among special funds and that reasonable allocations will have to be recalculated after the committee’s changes.

The CD2 also adds reporting and transparency measures: the committee directed the administration to provide clearer monthly reporting about salary savings, vacancies and incentive payments and required notifications to the council for certain inter-fund transfers. Several proposed reporting provisos were drafted but the committee rejected or deferred some of them to avoid overly burdensome monthly work for administration staff; others remain as technical reporting requirements to appear in the FD1 draft.

Committee members unanimously amended Bill 22 to a CD2 incorporating the changes discussed during the hearing and instructed staff to include technical or non-substantive edits as needed. The chair reported the CD2 out for passage on third reading with no recorded objections.

The committee’s changes are intended to preserve a roughly $6,000,000 buffer while restoring positions cut in earlier drafts and adding district-priority projects; committee members stressed they expect follow-up reports and data showing whether the projects are implemented as budgeted.