Last evening (4/5/16) the Budget & Finance Committee, with seven of nine members present, made their annual sojourn to Kihei to hear from our community at the Center on Lipoa, and yes your Association was there to squeeze our extensive comments & concerns for the FY 2017 budget into three minutes, but we did submit everything in writing & hopes in will be read & addressed.

Beginning at 6:00 PM, there were about 60 guys in the cavernous room, most waiting to testify and a lesser number there to support testifiers or just listen and observe. Many of the testifiers asked for funding support of several social organizations, including MEO, Head Start, Hui Malama, Best Buddies, Hale Kau Kau, and to MEDB for its support of various programs.

We offered documents on Wastewater, including our Position Statement (see website) and a reply letter asking for comments on wastewater system expansion in Kihei . Further we asked for support of several CIP projects in our area and comments on several other which appear at least questionable. We prefaced all our comments to address the challenge we have to give input on the massive budget document just released a few days prior, and limit our input to 3 minutes.

We intend to do our best over next few months when this committee meets almost daily, to trek into Wailuku on appropriate dates when specific items are discussed to address them at most appropriate times.

In general, we ascertained that the Committee’s concern was the 14.6% increase from the current one, as offered by the Administration for FY 2017.