-
Headlines
State Budget Transparency: A Look Behind the Numbers
Most states are now wrapping up their 2013-2014 budget cycles, and apparently they're in good shape too. But thanks to the lack of budget transparency, state and local governments are estimated to owe up to $4 trillion more than they have set aside for pensions and retiree health care.
-
Policy Brief
Financial Incentives Are The "Core" Of New Education Standards
The implementation of the Common Core State Standards Initiative is forcing states to determine when a “good offer” becomes an offer that cannot be refused. This report will explain the issues, in terms of both finances and fedearlism, surrounding the adoption of the Commone Core.
-
Research
Public Sector Pension Reform: Addressing Pressing Fiscal Realities from a Long-Term Perspective
There are persistent fiscal and demographic challenges in most states. The public sector workforce is aging as the baby boom cohort moves towards and into traditional retirement ages. Budgetary pressures at the state and local level make it difficult to increase plan funding and maintain the size of the public sector workforce.
-
Headlines
Report Says State Budget Surpluses Don't Mean That Much
A new study shows that many states could end the current fiscal year with surpluses in their general funds. While that may seem like good news, it's probably too early to get excited. That's because those positive numbers are largely the result of one-time influxes of tax revenue that came when investors sold off assets late last calendar year to avoid higher federal tax rates that came in 2013.
-
Headlines
State pensions in America: Ruinous Promises
States cannot pretend to be in good financial health unless they tackle pensions.
- View All News Stories
Budget timeframe: Biennial
Fiscal Year begins: July 1
The current state budget can be found here and the FY2013 supplemental budget can be found here.
Find the legislative session calendar here.
Find the current legislative leaders here.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie
The Honorable Neil Abercrombie

Governor, State of Hawai`i

Executive Chambers, 
State Capitol

Honolulu, Hawai`i 96813
Phone: (808) 586-0034
Fax: (808) 586-0006
Contact form
Georgina K. Kawamura, Director of Finance
Department of Budget & Finance
250 South Hotel Street, Room 300
No. 1 Capitol District Building
Honolulu, HI 96813
Phone: (808) 586-1518
Fax: (808) 586-1976
www.state.hi.us/budget/
HI.BudgetandFinance@hawaii.com
Want a more robust, long-term look at your state's fiscal health, beyond the budget? There are two parts: Click here for the FY2012 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) compiled by the state government, and click here for information on the state's pension liabilities.
Hawaii is required to pass a "balanced budget." Article VII, Section 5 of the Constitution states no expenditures of public money shall exceed the general fund revenues, except when the governor declares an emergency. Moreover, Title 5, Section 37-74(c) of the State law requires the director of finance to reduce appropriated disbursements when collected revenues are less than allotted revenues. Section 37-92 also caps total proposed expenditures to the appropriations from the previous year plus the state growth. This is commonly referred to as "budgeting for fiscal discipline." Even with these laws in place, Hawaii reported budget deficits (negative net transactions) for the three years studied. Hawaii law forbids the carrying over of a deficit from one year to the next.
For FY2007, Hawaii maintained three governmental funds: the General fund, Capital Projects Fund, and Med-Quest Special Revenue Fund. It also maintained other governmental funds which are combined in the non-major governmental funds. Hawaii budgets for the General Fund, the Med-Quest Special Revenue fund and the non-major Special Revenue fund. [from the Institute for Truth in Accounting]
Find the state's bond ratings here.
|
|
|
Pensions :
-
RESEARCH
Public Sector Pension Reform: Addressing Pressing Fiscal Realities from a Long-Term Perspective
There are persistent fiscal and demographic challenges in most states. The public sector workforce is aging as the baby boom cohort moves towards and into traditional retirement ages. Budgetary pressures at the state and local level make it difficult to increase plan funding and maintain the size of the public sector workforce.
-
HEADLINES
State pension reforms to result in more hybrid pension plans -- report
More states will create hybrid plans in the future because of the less-volatile contribution levels and the fact that the defined contribution components are portable for a workforce that is now increasingly more mobile, according to a new report.
- View All Hawaii articles
Budget Processes and Systems :
-
HEADLINES: Hawaii
Hawaii Legislature Unanimously Passes State Budget
The Hawaii State Legislature today voted unanimously in both the House and Senate to approve the state budget for the upcoming FY2013-2015 biennium.
-
HEADLINES
Budget Gimmicks Update, April 2013
State officials have a deep bag of tricks to "solve" budget gaps but they often keep budgets far from being balanced. This consistent habit of kicking the can down the road has put states in their current fiscal catastrophe. Below are some of the gimmicks on which lawmakers rely, and examples of how states have used them.
- View All Hawaii articles
-
Solutions:
How Reality-Based Budgeting Can Permanently Resolve State Budget Gaps
State Budget Solutions recommends that state legislators take action in 2013 to resolve the serious state financial crises by changing their focus from inputs to outcomes by redesigning budgets from the ground up based on priorities and performance.
-
Solutions:
How to Prevent Future Pension Crises
The time for state and local governments to offer defined contribution retirement plans that protect both taxpayer dollars and public employee retirement security is now.
-
Solutions:
State Lawmaker’s Guide to Evaluating Medicaid Expansion Projections
Supporters of Obamacare claim that expanding Medicaid will entail little to no cost to state governments, since the federal government will fund the vast majority of the additional costs. Indeed, some analyses project states achieving savings from adopting the expansion. However, state lawmakers should be wary of accepting such analyses at face value.
-
Solutions:
Medicaid Is Broken—Let the States Fix It
Block-granting Medicaid is the best way to deliver better, cost-effective care to the most vulnerable Americans.
-
Solutions:
The Case for Reform: Prisons
Prisons are supremely important, but they are also a supremely expensive government program, and thus prison systems must be held to the highest standards of accountability.
- View All Solutions
-
Public Sector Pension Reform: Addressing Pressing Fiscal Realities from a Long-Term Perspective
There are persistent fiscal and demographic challenges in most states. The public sector workforce is aging as the baby boom cohort moves towards and into traditional retirement ages. Budgetary pressures at the state and local level make it difficult to increase plan funding and maintain the size of the public sector workforce.
-
State pensions in America: Ruinous Promises
States cannot pretend to be in good financial health unless they tackle pensions.
-
State pension reforms to result in more hybrid pension plans -- report
More states will create hybrid plans in the future because of the less-volatile contribution levels and the fact that the defined contribution components are portable for a workforce that is now increasingly more mobile, according to a new report.
-
In face of massive unfunded liability, states still slow to pre-fund retiree healthcare benefits
The size of unfunded retiree healthcare liabilities varies widely by state. While some states have been making slow progress towards pre-funding these obligations, other have been contributing to them on a pay-as-you-go basis. As a result of the latter approach, combined unfunded liabilities are $425 billion under the most optimistic assumptions.
-
BLOG
Discount rates and the fair-market valuation pension critique
At its core, the debate over how to properly fund public pension plans starts with how to accurately value liabilities so that governments can meet their obligations in the future.
- View All Pensions
-
BLOG: K-12 Education, Federal Government Impact, Federal Government Impact
Common Core raises questions about government involvement, financial and otherwise, in local issues
Putting aside the merits or shortcomings of the Common Core, accepting national standards over which states have no control weakens the role that local officials have traditionally had in K-12 education.
-
BLOG: Pensions
Discount rates and the fair-market valuation pension critique
At its core, the debate over how to properly fund public pension plans starts with how to accurately value liabilities so that governments can meet their obligations in the future.
-
BLOG: Higher Education, Spending
Who is the highest paid state employee in your state?
Time to add a new diagram to the state budget and policy playbook--your state's highest paid employee is probably a football or basketball coach.
-
BLOG: Medicaid
Medicaid expansion won't yield quality health care
The bombshell Oregon Medicaid study released this week should give all states pause as they consider plans to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. States must now ask what the point of Medicaid is in the first place.
-
BLOG: Budget Gimmicks, Budget Processes and Systems, Measures to Balance Budgets, Spending, State Debt
Let's Put Privatizing Municipal Services Back on the Table
- View All Commentary
