Maui Mayor Alan Ara-kawa on Monday issued eight line-item vetoes, cutting $29.7 million in capital improvement proj-ects proposed by the County Council.

The county’s revenues would not have been sufficient to fund the Council-appropriated proj-ects and would have created a budget shortfall, Ara-kawa said.

“There are certain parts of this budget which, if left intact, would put money into proj-ects that don’t even exist yet and could potentially affect public service provided by our departments. For example, this budget could force us to shorten the hours of operation at our Central Maui Landfill and fund a community center for which we have no land yet.”

Arakawa objected to appropriations for CIP expenditures that had not yet been approved by a bond authorization bill. He also said it is “premature” to fund a new Kahu-lui Community Center when it could take years to select a final site.