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Mayor lets budget go into effect without his signature

Budget chair calls mayor’s decision ‘disheartening’

Citing objections to higher trash and landfill fees and cuts to department budgets, Mayor Michael Victorino announced Friday that he would allow next year’s budget to go into effect without his signature.

Friday was the deadline for Victorino to approve or veto the $822.6 million budget passed by the Maui County Council. The fiscal year 2020-21 budget will go into effect July 1 through June 30, 2021.

“The health, safety and well-being of our residents is first and foremost the top priority for me and my administration, especially during this pandemic,” Victorino said Friday in a letter to council members. “Our families need to focus on taking care of each other instead of worrying about increased costs for county services.”

Budget Chairwoman Keani Rawlins-Fernandez said earlier this week that she was “cautiously optimistic” the mayor would approve the budget because the council and administration worked closely throughout the budget process.

“It is a bit disheartening that the mayor chose not to cross the finish line together,” she said Friday.

Victorino explained that he had concerns about rate increases for residential trash collection and landfill tipping fees that could create “undue financial burden during this time.” He also objected to the removal of some operational funds and two positions for the Central Maui Landfill Sunday green waste program, which began four months ago to provide an additional day of disposal services to residents.

Residential trash collection was increased from $33 to $34 a month, while the landfill tipping fee went from $103 to $104 for businesses and decreased from $5 to $4 per truck/vehicle for residential refuse at the Central Maui Landfill.

The council cut about $50 million from Victorino’s original $869.8 million proposal. While the mayor said he understood the need to reduce the budget, “I was saddened that the further reductions to the department-proposed requests were offset by additional funds being appropriated for programs and projects initiated by council members.”

The mayor also referenced the reduction of funding to the Maui County Visitors Association; the council reduced his proposal of $3.5 million to $1.5 million.

Victorino said he understood the impacts of the visitor industry to the environment and culture and “the need to transform the whole industry.”

“However, there remains an urgent need to support a focus on quality over quantity in the tourism industry,” he said. “The Maui County Visitors Association needs funding to assist in an economic recovery for the industry that will continue to provide for our residents’ livelihood, as well as generate tax revenue to help fund essential services.”

Victorino said his proposed property tax rates would have provided relief for hotels, resorts and short-term rentals from the economic downturn and allow them to provide assistance for their employees for medical insurance, payroll and other related programs.

Rawlins-Fernandez, who’s also the council vice-chairwoman, said that when the mayor released his proposal at the end of March, council members knew they “had some pretty heavy lifting and hard choices to make to offset an over $53 million projected revenue shortfall due to the pandemic,” which included not receiving the $24 million transient accommodation tax revenue from the state.

“We all agree that our families need to focus on taking care of one another rather than worrying about financial strain, which is why the council went to great lengths to prioritize our residents before all else,” she said.

She said that while Victorino proposed lowered property tax rates for “predominantly offshore business interests such as hotels, resorts and short-term rentals” the council instead lowered property tax rates for homeowners and local businesses while also lowering the hotel rate slightly, “but not at the expense of providing residents’ financial relief first.”

In response to Victorino’s concerns about the Sunday green waste program, Rawlins-Fernandez said that “the council determined that it was a cost prohibitive elective not worth the expense at this time.”

“The mayor struggled with the additional labor and costs associated with increasing landfill operations by an additional day in 2019 as well,” she said. “Since that time the landfill expansion request was limited to green waste only, and not every Sunday, but to only one additional Sunday per month.”

She said that the council only removed funding from vacant positions and deleted expansion position requests, and that they were assured that removing the landfill positions would not result in job loss but only reassignment.

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.

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