Honolulu’s financial plan includes $1.8 billion operating budget

Hawaii Independent Staff

HONOLULU— Mayor Mufi Hannemann approved the city’s financial plan for the fiscal year that begins on July 1, including a $1.8 billion operating budget that is less than one percent larger than the current year’s figure.

The budget’s slight increase is due largely to predetermined expenses such as previously arbitrated pay raises for police and firefighters, negotiated pay raises for bus drivers, and other work force costs. The budget also includes $14 million for public safety requirements associated with hosting the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in 2011.

Absent the costs related to labor agreements and the APEC conference, the new operating budget would actually be 2.1 percent smaller than the current year’s.

The budget assumes 21 to 24 day furloughs of certain city employees, and continued five percent pay cuts for members of the mayor’s cabinet. Certain other employees not covered by collective bargaining agreements will also receive five percent pay cuts.

The separate $2.1 billion capital improvement budget designates $493 million for sanitation upgrades, $126 million for street improvements, and $1.3 billion for the Honolulu High-Capacity Rail Project, which recently achieved federal release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement.

Capital Improvement Highlights

Public Safety:
·    Police and Fire Equipment and Acquisitions ($9.9 million)
·    Replacement of the Waianae Police Station ($5 million)
·    East Kapolei Fire Station ($4.5 million)

Roads and Streets:
·    Rehabilitation of Streets ($77 million)
·    Kapolei Parkway Construction ($18.5 million)

Other Initiatives:
·    Nanakuli Regional Park ($700,000)
·    Waikiki improvements ($5 million)
·    H-Power rehabilitation ($4 million)

Sanitation:
·    Solid Waste Facility Expansion ($142.8 million)
·    Ala Moana Wastewater Pump Station Force Mains No. 3 and 4 ($139.5 million)
·    Kaneohe/Kailua Force Main No. 2 ($90.7 million)
·    Kailua Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvements ($23.6 million)

Transit:
·    Honolulu High Capacity Transit Project ($1.3 billion)
·    Bus and Handi-Van Acquisition ($17.7 million)
·    Alapai Transit Center and Alapai Transportation Management Center ($17.1 million)