OHA administration recommends raising spending limit and separating non‑OHA CIP to balance FY26–27 budget

Administrator and CEO Stacy Ferreira told the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) Budget and Finance Committee on June 2 that administration recommendations and revised numbers put the agency in a position to meet the board’s June ratification deadlines if trustees approve two key process changes: raising OHA’s spending limit to 5% and moving non‑OHA capital improvement project (CIP) requests out of the operations budget and into a separate discretionary grants‑in‑aid process.

Ferreira said the current spending limit of 4.4% equates to $49,436,652 for fiscal year 2026 and $51,598,221 for fiscal year 2027. “I’m recommending that we raise the spend limit from 4.4% up to 5%, which adds 2,500,000.0 to each fiscal year,” Ferreira said, noting a 5% limit would increase the available operating draw to $51,936,652 for FY26 and $54,098,221 for FY27.

The recommendation to separate non‑OHA asset CIP requests follows “the same practice that the state legislature follows,” Ferreira said, explaining that migrating non‑OHA asset requests to a standalone funding allocation would prevent delays to ratifying OHA’s core operating budget and allow the board time for due diligence, policy review and to identify funding sources. Ferreira told trustees the administration had identified three non‑OHA CIP requests totaling $2,550,000 for FY26 and $2,375,000 for FY27 and recommended those be treated as discretionary grants‑in‑aid pending board policy.

Why it matters

The changes would alter how OHA presents and approves its biennial operating budget. Separating non‑OHA…