Caucus lauds historic $1B for Native Hawaiian initiatives
State lawmakers have put more than $1 billion toward Native Hawaiian projects and initiatives — including $600 million to tackle the Hawaiian homestead waiting list — a move that the Native Hawaiian Legislative Caucus praised as historic as the session wrapped up on Thursday.
The funding is a significant increase from the $78 million that was appropriated towards Native Hawaiian initiatives last year, according to a news release from the state Legislature.
“We are on the precipice of celebrating the most consequential legislative session in 100 years,” said Oahu Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, who co-chairs the caucus with Oahu Rep. Daniel Holt. “Regardless of what community or island you represent, the issues that we were able to address this session truly impacts us all. This is a great starting point for addressing many issues faced by our state and sets the stage for what we need to address going forward.”
The caucus’ priorities at the start of the session included addressing the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands waiting list, settling the Kalima case and planning the Mauna Kea Stewardship and oversight authority, according to the news release.
Bill highlights from this session include:
● House Bill 2511, which appropriates $600 million to DHHL to pursue a multipronged approach to eliminating its waiting list. Roughly 28,000 people are sitting on the list for homestead leases, with some spending decades waiting for their chance.
● Senate Bill 3041, which appropriates $335,557,607.93 for the Kalima case vs. the DHHL. Last month, Gov. David Ige announced that the state had agreed to pay $328 million to settle the class-action lawsuit filed by 2,700 Native Hawaiians on the waiting list. The case is named for plaintiff Leona Kalima.
● House Bill 2024, which restructures the management of Mauna Kea, long overseen by the University of Hawaii under a 65-year master lease with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. The bill appropriates $14 million for the startup and transition planning costs for the Mauna Kea Stewardship and oversight authority that will manage the lands with UH
before eventually taking over. It also puts aside $350,000 for K-12 public education programs in astronomy-related fields of learning.
● House Bill 1600, the stage budget, which includes funding for several initiatives across the state, including $38 million to address staffing recruitment, training and providing Hawaiian language immersion for students in state Department of Education schools; $10 million for planning and development for Hawaiian homesteads; $400,000 in additional funding for operating expenses at the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve; and $200,000 for the Aha Moku Advisory Committee.
● Senate Bill 2021, which appropriates $64 million to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for a portion of the income and proceeds from the public land trust. It would also raise annual revenue payments to OHA from $15.1 million to $25.1 million and form a working group to continue discussion on “this long-debated issue,” OHA Board Chairperson Carmen “Hulu” Lindsey said in a statement on Tuesday.
Lindsey, who is the board’s Maui trustee, also celebrated the $600 million appropriation to DHHL, describing it as “a historic day of funding.”
“Though long in coming, these funds provide the Native Hawaiian community an opportunity to begin to heal from the injustices of the past — injustices they have suffered in their own homeland inflicted by their own state government — and have the potential to make a significant impact in the lives of our people,” she said in a statement last week. “We are grateful to the leaders of the House and Senate for not only recognizing but addressing the state’s obligations to Native Hawaiians this legislative session.”
Two other measures passed by the Legislature would help out kalo farmers, such as House Bill 2466, which exempts the gross proceeds or income from the sale of unprocessed taro products from the general excise tax. House Bill 1768, meanwhile, exempts the in-stream use of water for traditional and customary kalo cultivation practices from the existing process for disposition of water rights.
Other bills aim to protect traditional practices. House Bill 1894 allows the use of both traditional Native Hawaiian burial practices and environmentally friendly burial practices by including water cremation in the treatment and disposal of human remains. A Senate resolution urges the counties and the state to work with Huamakahikina, an advocacy-based coalition of kumu hula, to establish policies protecting hula.
Lawmakers also passed a House resolution apologizing to the Native Hawaiian people for the prohibition of the instructional use of the Hawaiian language in Hawaii schools from 1896 to 1986.
Rep. Angus McKelvey, who represents West Maui and North Kihei and is also a member of the caucus, said many initiatives were “overdue for years by the State of Hawaii to our host culture.”
“While the $1 billion of funding and other bills was a ‘banner year’ for Native Hawaiians, I’ve always said that ‘justice delayed is justice denied,’ and I see it as finally paying what has been due for generations,” McKelvey said in a statement on Wednesday.