The Maui News

Maui County’s Senate delegation voiced its full support Friday for the latest version of the state’s supplemental operating budget, which includes funding for homestead housing, Kahului Airport improvements and new facilities for some Maui County high schools.

The Senate Committee on Ways and Means recently passed the budget for fiscal years 2022-23, which heads to the full Senate for a vote on Tuesday, a spokesman said.

“With funding set aside for infrastructure, education, housing and health on the Valley Isle and statewide, we are heartened in anticipation of the needed work that will be done to improve the lives of our neighbors and friends on Maui, Molokai and Lanai,” said a joint statement from Maui County’s three senators, Gilbert Keith-Agaran of District 5, Wailuku, Waihee and Kahului; Rosalyn “Roz” Baker of District 6, South and West Maui; and Lynn DeCoite of District 7, Hana, East and Upcountry Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe.

After the Senate vote, a House-Senate conference committee over the last three weeks of the session will need to meet to work on final items and amounts that will be included in the budget, Keith-Agaran said in an email on Friday.

The Senate draft of the state’s supplemental budget includes the following highlights for Maui County:

• $600 million in general funds in FY23 for homestead housing.

• $112.3 million in FY23 for down payment assistance and mortgage payment assistance to beneficiaries of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920.

• $94 million in general funds in FY23 for a pilot teacher salary modernization project.

• $73 million for Kahului Harbor improvements.

• $45.5 million in general funds in FY22 for centralized kitchens for the Farm-to-School program.

• $45 million for Kahului Airport terminal, systems and facilities improvements.

• $44 million for various Maui state highway projects, including $24.8 million for Puunene Avenue improvements from Kamehameha Avenue to Kuihelani Highway.

• $34.5 million in general funds in FY23 for teacher salary differentials.

• $33.3 million in general funds in FY23 for the state match for the statewide broadband initiative.

• $9 million for the Kupuna Care Program.

• $9 million in bond funds for Maui Health Systems repairs, renovations and upgrades for Maui Memorial Medical Center, Kula Hospital and Lanai Community Hospital.

• $8.9 million in general funds in FY23 for Maui Health Systems operating subsidy.

• $5.8 million in bond funds for Baldwin High School athletic facilities.

• $5.2 million and seven positions in FY23 for a statewide internship program that will place 300 interns and 30 Department of Education students across state departments.

• $4 million in bond funds for Maui College Vocational Technology Center.

• $3.6 million in bond funds for King Kamehameha III Elementary School health and safety shoreline protection improvements.

• $3.4 million in general funds in FY23 to address the statewide nursing workforce.

• $3.3 million and six positions in general funds in FY23 to expand the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine’s residency program to the Neighbor Islands.

• $3 million in bond funds for Molokai High School athletic facilities.