House lawmakers are peeved over a public service announcement they say is aimed at pressuring the Legislature to fund the controversial pharmacy college building at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s proposed budget includes $28 million in state-backed bonds for the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy building, and state Budget Director Kalbert Young has said the project is a top priority for the administration.
Last year, pharmacy school officials and students were unable to persuade lawmakers to approve any funds, despite cautioning that the school’s accreditation was at risk because it lacked adequate facilities.
The ad that’s been running on KFVE came up during a budget briefing Tuesday before the House Finance and Senate Ways and Means committees. Lawmakers wanted to know who was responsible for the messaging.
"Recently, the University of Hawaii has been running a public service announcement to pressure the Legislature to fund the pharmacy school. So my question is, whose decision was that and who should we thank for making that decision?" Rep. Sylvia Luke, House Finance chairwoman, asked UH officials.
"Although the public service announcement is free to the university, apparently, the university chose out of all the things that they could highlight about the university, they decided to use that spot to pressure the Legislature," she said.
Luke asked several times who approved the ad, but UH officials essentially dodged answering.
"David, maybe you should just take the credit for that," Luke told interim UH President David Lassner.
Eventually, UH-Hilo Chancellor Don Straney took responsibility. He said he wanted to highlight the importance of the pharmacy college in the community, but added, "I don’t think that’s how it turned out." He said the pharmacy school staff wrote the ad.
Finance Vice Chairman Rep. Scott Nishimoto told Straney: "I saw the ad, and I think there’s a difference between highlighting the pharmacy school and saying that the Legislature is not funding the new building."
UH spokeswoman Lynne Waters said the general manager of KFVE last August offered the university $50,000 worth of free air time. She said various ads were scheduled to randomly air, and that the pharmacy ad wasn’t intended to run now, as the Legislature heads back into session. The ad has since been pulled.
