Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 38, Number 2, 1 February 2021 — Funding for Infrastructure is Necessary [ARTICLE]

Funding for Infrastructure is Necessary

By Cedric Duarte This July, the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act will turn 100 years old. The State of Hawaii's constitutional responsibility of returning native Hawaiians to the land has been underfunded since it was accepted as a condition of statehood, so mueh so that there have been numerous attempts to resolve DHHL' s budget shortfalls, including lawsuits by beneficiaries. As a bold response to sedate funding, the Department drafted a legislative proposal to allow limited casino gaming in the form of a single integrated resort property on Hawaiian Home Lands. Following the 2015 Jeannette Castagnetti decision in the Nelson case, the Department has submitted a sufficient sums budget to the legislature whieh represents what DHHL ean spend in a fiscal year toward homestead development. Since the decision, the proposed budgets were over $240 million per year. Governor David Ige ' s administration and the legislature have provided record-level funding to DHHL in these past five years, but these amounts are still far short of what is needed for infrastructure development to ensure that native Hawaiian beneficiaries ean not only be offered a lot for homesteading but have the necessary infrastructure to do so with success. This limited gaming proposal aims to create a consistent funding source for DHHL to build roads, sewage systems, and water sources that will ultimately develop raw land into suitable home, farm, and ranching lots. The time is now to have a meaningful conversation about the necessary resources that are needed to chart a more successful path for the next 100 years of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. ■ Cedric R. Duarte is tlie Information & Community Relations Offtcerfor the Department ofHawaiian Home Lands. He has worked in communications and marketing since 1999 and is a longtime event organizer. A product of the Kamehameha Schools and the University ofHawai'i at Mānoa, he resides in 'Aiea with his wife and two daughters.