LIHUE — The Kauai County Council on Tuesday approved Kauai’s $209 million budget for fiscal year 2014. “Between finding some costs, enhancing revenues, I think we got ourselves to a place that we all feel pretty comfortable about this budget,”
LIHUE — The Kauai County Council on Tuesday approved Kauai’s $209 million budget for fiscal year 2014.
“Between finding some costs, enhancing revenues, I think we got ourselves to a place that we all feel pretty comfortable about this budget,” Council Chair Jay Furfaro said.
After revising Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.’s proposals sent March 15 and May 8, the council came up with a final budget of $159.36 million for operations and $49.93 million for capital improvement projects for FY 2014, which starts July 1.
“I am very happy to support this budget; it’s the first budget that I have supported in the last three years,” Councilman Mel Rapozo said.
But he also said there needs to be “a lot of improvement” throughout the county, regarding fiscal responsibility.
Councilman Tim Bynum said this was “the most difficult, but also the best budget process” in which he was involved. In the past, he said, the council would get stuck on political wrangling over one or two controversial issues, while the rest of the mayor’s budget would pass “unscathed.”
But to Bynum, chair of the council’s finance committee, there is an issue that needs improvement.
“We desperately need to address the tax inequities that are in the homestead class,” he said. “We have people with equally valued homes; one paying $600 a year in property taxes and a person right across the street paying $1,800, for no other reason than the luck of the draw.”
Bynum hopes that he and Furfaro will be able to collaborate on an number of tax proposals this year to get the “house in order.”
Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura said the presentations from various departments were better than in the previous years.
“I can say without reservation that of the 17 council budget processes I have been involved with, this budget process has been the best,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, there is much more that needs to be improved and I didn’t agree with all of the decisions, but there were many big steps forward this year.”
This year’s budget process, she said, reflected “more accurately and honestly” the county’s financial situation. The budget process imposed more discipline in accurate balancing, and in departments “thinking” more clearly and rigorously on how to achieve their goals.
Councilman Ross Kagawa said he didn’t expect to be approving tax rate increases in his first term in the council. Part of getting him to accept the budget, he said, was not giving the administration every increase it asked for.
Kagawa thanked council members Rapozo and Gary Hooser for standing with him against increasing the vehicle weight tax and commercial-trash tipping fees.
Furfaro said his next step is to work on an ordinance to address county fees every three years.
“It’s very tough for people to see fees jump, when they haven’t been reviewed, some of them, for 15 and 16 years,” he said. “We have to have a continuity and a consistency that allows us to do that.”
• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0452 or lazambuja@ thegardenisland.com.
