Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 9, Number 2, 1 February 1992 — OHA considers state offer [ARTICLE]

OHA considers state offer

by Ann L. Moore OHA Chairman Clayton Hee, at a press eonference in December, announced that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is considering the state's offer of four land parcels as part of the settlement for the "past due" portion of rent the state owes OHA on its ceded land revenues. OHA has also submitted two additional parcels as part of the settlement.

Following an extended series of negotiations whieh started in 1990, the state and OHA announced jointly that an agreement in principle had been reached on the formula for payment of past-due revenues owed OHA for its share of the rental-revenue generated by enterprises on ceded land. The formula agreement was subsequently ratified by the state legislature. Negotiations on the amount continued throughout 1991. The question of revenue due OHA goes back to 1980, when OHA was formed under a provi-

sion of the state constitution. At that time the law granted OHA 20 percent of the ceded land revenues for the betterment of native Hawaiians. From 1981 to 1991 OHA received approximately 2 percent of the revenue. Following the agreement on the formula to assess the amount of past-due revenue an audit of the lands was completed for the state in 1991 and the state is now offering OHA compensation totalling $95 million for the period up to June 30, 1991.

Chairman Hee said the money is owed to the Hawaiian people and is not an appropriation. "The money is owed to the office by law," he said. The chairman said OHA's position is that OHA agrees that the revenue due is at least $95 million and that it is probably "closer to $150 million." OHA further believes, the chairman said, that the state should pay at least the $95 million agreed on this year, with the remaining continued page 9

OHA exchanae

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discrepancy resolved through further negotiation.

The land would constitute partial compensation to OHA for the past due rent it should have received since it eame fu!ly into being, following the election of nine trustees, in 1981. The land being considered, worth approximately $35 million, includes: • land at Ala Moana leased to the Waikiki Yacht Club, • land on Isenberg Street, the site of the Stadium Bowl-0-Drome, • two industrially zoned parcels totalling 2 1 acres on Sand Island, • approximately 200 acres at Kukiomaniniowali near Kona on Hawai'i, • approximately 200 acres at Lalamilo, Waimea, on Hawai'i; and • approximately 8,300 acres at Wailua on Kaua'i.

Meanwhile, negotiations concerning the ceded land package are continuing. Norma Wong, administrative assistant to Gov. John Waihee, has said that OHA must first finish discussions of the state's audit numbers before the next steps are taken. She said the audit indicates the state owes OHA $95.6 million for land use from 1981-1991 but figures are not available for how mueh is owed since July. Chairman Hee said that OHA anticipates the state will owe an additional $10 million to $15 million for the 1992-1993 fiscal year. The state's fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30.

Hee said OHA and the state have agreed that between $105 million and $110 million will be owed OHA by June 30, 1992. The chairman added that OHA is conducting an independent audit because it believes the amount owed OHA may be $150 million, or perhaps more. The state, Chairman Hee said, has excluded some harbor property and other land from its estimate and and OHA also questions the state's methods of calculating what is owed to OHA.