The Office of Hawaiian Affairs stands to receive a lot more proceeds from the state’s public land trust, including $64 million retroactively, under a bill sent to Gov. David Ige.

By way of unanimous votes Tuesday in the Senate and House of Representatives, state lawmakers gave final approval to a bill that sets OHA’s annual payment from ceded lands at $21.5 million, up from $15.1 million.

Senate Bill 2021 also makes the increase retroactive to 2012 by giving OHA a lump sum of $64 million, which is the $6.4 million difference over 10 years.

“This Legislature made a decision to reset the amount at $21.5 million not just prospectively, but retroactively,” said Rep. Sylvia Luke (D, Punchbowl-Pauoa- Nuuanu) to applause from colleagues in the House Chamber, where guests included OHA CEO Sylvia Hussey.

The bill, if it becomes law, would partly bridge some of a long-unaddressed gap between how much OHA and state leaders believe is owed to the agency under an obligation rooted in Hawaii’s Constitution.

This obligation was established along with OHA through a 1978 Hawaii constitutional amendment that governs the spending of income derived from primarily crown and government lands that were ceded to the United States following the 1893 overthrow of the kingdom of Hawaii, which Congress has recognized as illegal.

Control of this land trust, which includes about 1.4 million acres, passed to Hawaii upon statehood, and the 1959 Admission Act requires using income from the lands for five public purposes, including public education institutions, farm and housing development, and “betterment of the conditions of native Hawaiians.”

The Legislature in 1980 specified in law that the share for OHA be 20%. Since then disagreement and divergent views between state leaders and OHA have festered and touched off litigation over how much the ceded-land revenue obligation amounts to in dollars.

So basically, OHA has received income from the trust over the past five decades in the form of partial settlements and fixed sums.

The annual $15.1 million contribution was set by lawmakers in 2006 as an approximation of what 20% was at the time. The updated $21.5 million figure represents an inflationary adjustment based on consumer price index changes over the past 15 years.

In recent years OHA has been using more of its ceded-land revenue payments to fund grants that help beneficiaries, while relying on mainly investment income from its own assets to fund the agency’s roughly $50 million operating budget.

The agency in 2021 gave out $16 million in grants, up from $12 million the year before and about $6 million in 2017.

Carmen “Hulu” Lindsey, OHA board chair, thanked key lawmakers for their leadership along with agency beneficiaries and community members for their support of the bill.

“It has been extremely gratifying to observe this year’s legislative session and know that not only were concerns for the Native Hawaiian people listened to and heard, but attended to as well,” she said Tuesday in a statement. “We have always, and will continue to, advocate for what is just, fair and pono for our people. We would like to thank our legislators for addressing the state’s constitutional obligation to Native Hawaiians and agreeing to continue to work toward a resolution of this issue.”

Lawmakers had considered several drafts of SB 2021, along with other OHA funding bills this year, and settled on a conference draft last week along with final drafts of a bill to deliver a record $600 million to the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and another bill to fund a $328 million settlement in a 23-year-old lawsuit over DHHL homestead award delays affecting about 2,700 Hawaiian plaintiffs.

Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole (D, Kailua-Kaneohe), co-chair of the Hawaiian Caucus at the Legislature, said SB 2021 was an accomplishment that addressed a lingering issue for Hawaiians. “This is something that OHA has been after for a number of years,” he said Monday.

OHA has long encouraged lawmakers to deliver much more ceded-land revenue.

The agency pushed one bill this year, Senate Bill 2122, that proposed setting the annual payment at $78.9 million while also contributing $638 million to satisfy the ceded-land obligation from July 1, 2012, to the June 30 end of this fiscal year.

The $78.9 million figure is based on a 2016 analysis by a local accounting firm commissioned by OHA to assess what 20% of ceded- land income represented. Lawmakers deferred SB 2122 in February and did not hear a similar House version of the OHA-sponsored bill.

An earlier version of SB 2021, which was approved Tuesday, proposed a $21.5 million annual payment and a one-time deposit of about $31 million that the state previously calculated as underpayments owed to OHA since 2012.

Past agreements to address ceded-land revenue claims have included the 2006 arrangement to pay OHA $15.1 million a year plus a one-time sum of $17.5 million, and a 2012 conveyance of commercial real estate in Kakaako makai valued at $200 million.

SB 2021 represents yet another interim change, though the bill also aims to resolve long-standing differences over the ceded-land income calculation issue by establishing a working group to propose a solution that is agreeable to OHA, state administrators and lawmakers.

The working group is to comprise six members, with three appointed by the governor and three appointed by OHA’s board of trustees.

“We are really looking forward to the working group so we can come up with a long-term negotiation package for OHA and hopefully deal with this issue in the future,” Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore-Mililani Mauka) said during Friday’s conference committee meeting.