Hawaii lawmakers, working with a revenue surplus for a second straight legislative session, dialed back grant awards to nonprofits this year but maintained a higher level of giving than in other recent years.
The Legislature included about $40 million of aid grants in its recently passed budget bill, down from $49 million in 2022 but still up from around $30 million in other recent years before suspensions of the program in 2020 and 2021 amid a reeling local economy during the coronavirus pandemic.
There were 188 grant awards made this year, with about half of total award dollars given to support operations and half to fund capital improvement projects.
Rep. Lisa Kitagawa, who helped make grant decisions from among 332 applications, noted that recipients selected for awards support families, children, education, agriculture, health care, housing and many other things.
“This budget provides $40 million to all of these organizations that work tirelessly every day in our community,” Kitagawa (D, Kaaawa-Kahaluu- Kaneohe) said in a House of Representatives floor speech on May 4, the last day of the 2023 Legislature.
Kitagawa highlighted one award of $100,000 for Aloha Diaper Bank to expand services on Oahu, Maui, Molokai and Kauai by noting, “We put a lot of money into diaper banks.”
Grant award amounts ranged from $20,000 to $1 million.
The biggest award went to the Waianae District Comprehensive Health and Hospital Board to help sustain a 24-hour emergency room that operates at a financial loss. The nonprofit also received a $100,000 grant to help renovate a property for use as a teaching facility for family medicine residency work.
In many cases, applicants received less than they sought, which is common given that lawmakers generally want to help as many applicants as they can with a limited pool of money for the grant-in-aid program.
For instance, Diamond Head Theatre applied for $2 million to renovate an old building for use as educational studios, an upgraded costume department and administrative offices after finishing construction on a new $23 million theater in 2022.
“This final renovation will finish (the) dream of the new arts center at Diamond Head Theatre,” Deena Dray, the organization’s executive director, said in her application. “While the opening of the New Diamond Head Theatre is an exponential leap forward for Hawaii’s performing arts community, the theatre is operating at a deceivingly limited capacity without the completion of Phase 2.”
Lawmakers decided to approve a $500,000 grant to help with the theater project.
Most grant recipients are nonprofits, though other entities including a struggling for-profit pineapple producer on Maui received awards serving a public purpose.
Haliimaile Pineapple Co., also known as Maui Gold Pineapple Co., received a $90,000 grant to help fence off some of its 350-acre farm from axis deer and feral pigs. The company said in its application seeking $100,000 that deer have caused $1 million to $2 million in damage annually for the past two to three years and that a grant would help pay for a $550,000 fencing project.
Without the help, the farm acquired by Maui Pineapple Tours LLC in January would be forced to shut down, according to Rudy Balala, Haliimaile Pineapple general manger.
“Closing the farm wouldn’t just mean that the Maui community loses an additional 77 local, good-paying jobs tied to agriculture, it would mean the community loses an iconic and unique local agricultural product that is intertwined with Maui’s culture and history for over a century,” Balala said in the company’s application.
A full list of grant awards is included in the budget measure, House Bill 300, which still awaits action by Gov. Josh Green.
Grant money approved by the 2022 Legislature was held up from release until late December when Green, who was elected in November, reversed “a very conservative, narrow interpretation” of disbursement rules that had delayed the release of 2022 grant funding under his predecessor, David Ige.
LARGE AWARD RECIPIENTS
14 nonprofits received grant awards of $500,000 or more from the Hawaii Legislature this year.
>> Blood Bank of Hawaii
>> Diamond Head Theatre
>> Hana Health
>> The Institute of Human Services
>> Island of Hawaii YMCA
>> J. Walter Cameron Center
>> Kuakini Support Services
>> Ko‘olauloa Health Center
>> Maui Arts & Cultural Center
>> Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific
>> Ryugen Taiko
>> Wahiawa Center for Community Health
>> Waianae District Comprehensive Health and Hospital Board
>> Waiohuli Hawaiian Homesteaders Association
