Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 12, Number 12, 1 December 1995 — Board OKs supplemental budgets [ARTICLE]

Board OKs supplemental budgets

by Patrick Johnston OHA trustees have voted to approve OHA's supplemental hudgets for fiscal year 1996 and 1997 . The supplemental hudgets consist of what are referred to as the "A" and "B" hudgets. The "A" hudget is funding OHA needs for payroll costs whieh were not supported hy the Legislature; the "B" budget is trust funds used to expand existing programs and operations as well as fund new programs and positions. At their Oct. 26 BOT meeting, the board reaffirmed $3,155,614 for OHA's "A" budget and appropriat-

ed $5,241,909 for OHA's "B" budget. Programs that OHA will be supporting in the next two years include housing projects, cultural sensitivity seminars, business training workshops, and legal assistance projects. OHA moneys will also be used to pay salaries for two burials program staff at the Department of Land and Natural Resources whieh the department was going to cut. The decision to pass the supplemental budgets was made after several lengthy meetings of OHA's Budget, Finance and Policy eommittee. At these meetings, OHA division offtcers were asked to pre-

sent and justify their division's supplemental budget requests. Trustees then went over eaeh request on a line-item basis. OHA administrator Linda Colburn says that the funding is vital for the maintenance of services for Hawaiians, particularly in the face of government cutbacks and eeonomie hard times. "Many of our budgetary commitments," she points out, "reflect efforts to mitigate the adverse effects of state cutbacks, so that we ean continue to sustain the delivery of services to beneficiaries at a time when their needs are going to be greatest."