State senators unveiled a multibillion-dollar state construction budget Wednesday that features a $76 million appropriation for a new civic center and judiciary complex for Wahiawa, a district represented by powerful Ways and Means Committee Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz.

The Senate draft of the new construction budget also proposes to spend $10 million to finally upgrade the computer system for the state unemployment insurance system, which now runs on an antiquated mainframe computer.

That unemployment computer system is more than 32 years old, and has been utterly overwhelmed by the more than 232,000 unemployment claims filed during the opening months of the coronavirus pandemic.

The new $5 billion construction budget cut $20 million House lawmakers had proposed to spend on a new “vertical” elementary school that Department of Education officials had proposed to develop in a Kakaako high-rise at 690 Pohukaina St., and also deleted $7 million that the House proposed to fund renovations of the gym at Molokai High School.

Sen. Gil Keith-Agaran, vice chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and the architect of the new construction package, said Wednesday the bill includes “infrastructure funding that will help the development of additional housing, which will still be important as we get past the pandemic.”

The House included $67 million for the Dwelling Unit Revolving Fund in its draft of the budget earlier this year to help develop affordable housing statewide, and senators added another $50 million in extra funding in the new bill to help build affordable housing on the neighbor islands.

The Senate draft of the construction budget in House Bill 2725 is expected to pass as is, and will bypass the customary House-Senate negotiations during conference committee.

That’s because lawmakers are moving the bill during a compressed six-to 10-day session of the Legislature, and the House is expected to agree to the Senate’s construction proposal to speed it on its way to Gov. David Ige for his consideration.

Lawmakers are pushing the bill forward rapidly in an effort to use state construction spending as an economic stimulus, and say they want to quickly authorize “shovel-ready” projects that will create jobs at a time of historically high unemployment in Hawaii.

The Senate version of the construction budget bill also included $100 million to widen Farrington Highway from Kapolei Golf Course to Fort Weaver Road, a project that “will not just facilitate housing, but also the development of additional schools that are being planned for the area,” Keith-Agaran said.

Not all of the projects that the Senate added are what would generally be considered “shovel ready.” One item provides $2.5 million for the Hawaii Public Housing Authority’s project to develop up to 800 elderly housing units on its School Street campus; $5 million in planning money for the Maui Regional Public Safety Complex at Pulehunui; and $1.55 million for statewide planning for transit-oriented development.

The new Senate version of the construction budget also includes $70 million for construction of a new alignment for Honoapiilani Highway from Lahainaluna Road to Launiupoko.

As for the Wahiawa civic center and judiciary complex, Dela Cruz said the current District Court on Kilani Avenue is on leased space in Wahiawa, and “it’s not nearly as secure as the other courts.”

“It’s nearly makeshift,” Dela Cruz said. The plan is to replace the existing facility with a new complex across California Avenue from Longs that also would provide space for other state agencies, including the Department of Human Services.

When asked whether he project might be considered pork-barrel spending, Dela Cruz replied that “if you would go to the courthouse, you would see why it would be needed.”