Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the State Agriculture Funding topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Senator presses Department of Agriculture over disputed encumbrance figures for invasive-species funds
Summary
Senator Keohokalole asked that a Department of Agriculture letter be entered into the Senate journal after saying the department overstated how much of a $10 million appropriation from Act 231 had been encumbered; the Senate approved the request and handled routine referrals and scheduling motions without objection.
Senator Keohokalole used a point of personal privilege to say the Department of Agriculture misstated how much of a $10 million appropriation from Act 231 had been encumbered and asked that a department letter correcting the record be entered into the Senate journal.
Keohokalole told colleagues that the 2024 law (Act 231) originally appropriated $20 million to the Hawaii Department of Agriculture for invasive-species work but the governor reduced the appropriation to $10 million. He said the department chair, Sharon Hurd, presented a slide in a joint legislative briefing indicating that 52% of the appropriation — roughly $4 million — was encumbered. Keohokalole said that, after checking with the comptroller at the Department of Accounting and General Services, the actual amount encumbered was $1,354,522.09 and that the department later sent a letter confirming the lower amount.
"To date HDOA has encumbered $1,354,522.09 of the 10,000,000. 13.55 percent," Keohokalole read from the department's letter. He said the discrepancy matters because appropriated funds lapse on June 30, and lawmakers and the public deserve accurate information about spending progress.
Keohokalole also quoted a passage in the department's letter attributed to the director: "I apologize if my presentation created confusion on the progress HDOA is making to spend down the appropriation for biosecurity," and said the earlier slide presentation suggested a misunderstanding of the term "encumbrance." He noted that "encumbrance" is a standard budgetary term referenced in Article 7, Section 12 of the Constitution.
The presiding officer ordered that Keohokalole's letter from the Department of Agriculture be entered into the journal so the record reflects the correspondence.
Separately, the Senate approved several routine procedural items without recorded objection. A motion that "the senate bills numbers 12 10 to 15 84 pass first reading by title and be referred to committee" was moved, seconded and carried. The clerk also recorded referrals for governor's message numbers 502 to 639 to the committees listed on the order of the day, and Senate concurrent resolutions numbers 2 through 7 were referred to committee. The Senate recessed to meet in a joint session to receive the Chief Justice's State of the Judiciary address and agreed to leave the journal open until 4:30 p.m. for bill introductions; members were told the chamber should reconvene Monday, Jan. 27, at 11:30 a.m.
Attendance at the roll call was noted as 19 present and six excused earlier in the session.
No formal roll-call votes on substantive measures were recorded in the transcript for this discussion; the motions described above were carried by voice or by unanimous consent as reported on the floor.
