Last session, our esteemed Legislature appropriated $600 million to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) with a three-year deadline in which to spend the funds. Unfortunately, in order to comply with the Legislature’s directions, the DHHL and the state could run afoul of stipulations set in the federal American Rescue Plan Act and, in so doing, end up having to pay back $412 million in federal coronavirus relief funding.

Why did it take DHHL’s staff to discover this conflict rather than the staff of the Legislative Reference Bureau or our legislators themselves? Does anyone read or understand what is being passed each year? It makes one wonder how many other gotchas are lying in the hundreds of laws that our legislators pass each year.

Blaine Tsugawa

Waipahu

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