The rush is on.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority board on Thursday gave staff approval to move forward on 15 projects totalling $18 million to ensure the funds do not revert back to the state.

HTA staff is now trying to encumber the funds either by creating purchase orders to buy goods and services or signing contracts that commit to purchases by June 30, the date the agency could lose access to any carryover money in its special fund.

HTA has $12 million in leftover tourism special funds and about $6 million that has been parked for years in a special fund created for the Hawaiian Music and Dance Center.

“We recognize that there are monies in the tourism special fund right now that are just sort of sitting there,” HTA Chief Administrative Officer Keith Regan said. “They can be used to do the work and carry out the mission of the HTA now. If we don’t lock those monies in for Hawaiian culture, natural resources, community as of July 1, they no longer become usable and will eventually just go back into the general fund.”

Regan said it could be a stretch for HTA to get all of the projects contracted before June 30, but the agency is working hard to get it done.

The move to obligate the spending of these funds is an end run around pending legislation that HTA says puts its future in jeopardy and takes away the kind of autonomy that has made it possible for the agency to execute multiyear projects and move nimbly. It also makes it harder for state lawmakers to interfere with HTA’s destination management priorities.

Lawmakers passed House Bill 862, which takes away the dedicated transient accommodations tax funding HTA has had since its founding. If the governor signs HB 862, HTA’s fiscal year 2023 budget starts at zero, and the agency would have to justify to legislators why it should receive general funds. HTA also would lose its procurement exemption, a move that would require state approval for all future contracts and purchases.

Gov. David Ige has until June 21 to release his intent-to-veto list. However, in this case his hands might be tied.

Legislators left HTA funding out of House Bill 200, the state’s finance bill. If Ige vetoes HB 862, the federal funding that lawmakers allocated to HTA for fiscal year 2022 disappears, without any special funds to replace it.

An earlier version of HB 862 would have refocused the agency and its funds on its original marketing and branding functions, one of its four “pillars,” instead of prioritizing new pillars like Hawaiian culture, the environment and the community.

HTA’s pillars were left intact in the version of the bill that was forwarded to the governor. Still, if HB 862 and HB 200 are signed by Ige, state legislators would decide annually how much funding HTA should get, and it’s unclear whether the agency could count on future support for its pillars.

HTA President and CEO John De Fries told the board at its Thursday meeting, “We’re doubling up on our commitment to those pillars.”

Kalani Kaanaana, the agency’s director of Hawaiian cultural affairs, said, “Investing in our community, environment and Hawaiian culture is critical for the visitor industry today and the benefit of our children long into the future. The board’s leadership and decision will allow us to make an impact and deliver on the priorities of our Strategic Plan, as well as the community-led Destination Management Action Plans, to enhance residents’ quality of life throughout the state.”

Most of the encumbered funds will be directed toward existing community enrichment programs and programs that preserve and protect Hawaiian culture and natural resources.

However, some funding will go to a couple of new programs, such as the $1.5 million earmarked to support implementation in partnership with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources of a statewide reservation system at state parks and trails. An additional $500,000 was allocated to support a pilot program to increase the number of Aloha Ambassadors in Waikiki for the summer travel surge.

HTA plans to encumber all $6 million in the special fund created for the Hawaiian Music and Dance Center.

Kaanaana, who inherited the music center project when he joined HTA, for several years now has been trying to evaluate sites that might be a better fit than the Hawai‘i Convention Center rooftop. Before Kaanaana’s time, HTA paid more than $800,000 for consulting work to establish a Center for Hawaiian Music and Dance at the convention center, only to find out the state couldn’t afford the $98 million it would cost to build.

Last year, the HTA board approved a request from Kaanaana to release $250,000 of those funds to explore the creation of a virtual museum.

When asked what the $6 million would be used for, Kaanaana said: “We’re currently assessing the best course of action that allows these funds to be spent in a responsible way that accomplishes the vision set out by the The Museum of Hawaiian Music and Dance Committee.”

State Rep. Richard Onishi (D, South Hilo-Keaau-­Honuapo), chairman of the House Labor and Tourism Committee, had few reservations about HTA’s rush to encumber special funds — although he wasn’t sure it needed to move quite so rapidly.

“I thought the bill that we cast originally would allow them to access the funds until December. I am trying to get clarification as to whether that is available or not available to them,” Onishi said. “At this point, I don’t have any problems with (encumbering the funds). If they are unable to get access after June 30, then this makes sense.”

He said the Legislature previously agreed that putting the Hawaiian center on top of the rooftop was not a good idea and removed the location restriction to allow HTA to develop it elsewhere. However, Onishi said the agency would still have to put out a request for proposals to expend the money, and “I don’t think that’s possible in less than two months.”

State Sen. Glenn Wakai (D, Kalihi-Salt Lake-Aliamanu), who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy, Economic Development and Tourism, was far less supportive of HTA’s actions than Onishi.

“The continuous Achilles heel of government bureaucrats is that they spend money just because it’s there, not because it’s being properly utilized, and we saw that evidence in (Thursday’s) actions,” Wakai said.

If Ige signs the bills, Wakai said, HTA’s budget will be trimmed but it will have $60 million to spend on projects. He characterized the board’s move as “a mad scramble to waste money” and also expressed concern that HTA could use its procurement exemption to execute hasty contracts that are “sole-searched to someone’s friend.”

“That’s why we put them under procurement, so these types of shenanigans don’t continue,” he said.

Regan said all of the projects align with the strategic plan that HTA passed in January 2020.

“It seems like, and we get the sense that, the Legislature, in general, has been encouraging HTA to do a lot of those things that we are actually doing in the strategic plan,” he said.

Regan said HTA’s hope is that “between now and the next session that we can share with the Legislature all these great things that we’ve been working on that address a lot of their concerns.”