Honolulu Mayor Wants to Cut $50M in Vacancy Fees

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi proposed a budget of more than $5 billion for next year on Tuesday, easing spending by cutting $50 million from reserved positions.

Filling these positions has been at the center of Blangiardi’s mayoral agenda, and while officials have raised the prospect of cutting the cost in the past, he has been reluctant to do so. Now, he said, it’s time.

“This is just common sense,” said Blangiardi. “Just understanding the reality of our employees.”

The mayor emphasized that the city should work efficiently with resources as the financial costs are decreasing. The real estate boom coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic that increased property taxes has slowed. Federal funding is scarce for local governments now that the pandemic-era stimulus packages have ended and President Donald Trump has slashed funding for state and local governments.

It’s also possible that Honolulu’s highest cost of living will rise significantly, city budget chief Andy Kawano said, given global events such as Trump’s attack on Iran and its effects on things like energy prices. While Mr. Trump said oil prices may decrease after a short period of high prices, Kawano said inflation may rise to 6% or 7% per year.

In addition to that, the new union contracts and other expirations will cover an additional $55 million per year in average raises.

“We are in difficult times right now,” Kawano said.

The city has a 20 percent vacancy rate in its more than 10,000 properties. Filling these positions has been one of the priorities of the mayor since the beginning of his first term when he realized that the absence of people who do not live in many departments would affect his ability to do things.

“Our goal a few years ago was to fill as many of the positions as we could to provide services in a responsive and responsible manner,” Kawano said. “However, we have learned that we will continue to have other jobs.”

On Tuesday, Blangiardi sought to reassure the public that the change in plans does not mean a reduction in service. Funds earmarked for vacant land go unused each year when positions are not filled, he said, and this reversal means the money could be better used to support important projects.

“We are running at speed,” he said. “We are not going back. I want to emphasize: This is very slow.”

The Cuts Could Come

All departments will lose funding for positions in the program, according to Kawano, which must be approved by the council.

Some of the most difficult positions to fill have been engineers and police officers. Blangiardi has shown a change of heart recently during his weekly One O’ahu podcast, saying that perhaps not all of the police department’s hundreds of vacant positions need to be filled to full capacity.

He reiterated this at a press conference on Tuesday, although he has not yet taken a firm stance on the future of the police opening. He went on to say that departments are still recruiting people aggressively despite the reduction in funding for vacant positions.

The chairman of the city council, Mr. Tommy Waters, has suspended the seats in order to remove the money for other priorities of the council. Government officials responded that it would not be good because it would require a lot of administrative work to restore the lost areas.

In the current proposal, these positions will exist on a technical basis, Kawano said, they will not have the money to accompany them. This can only present a problem if many vacant spaces are filled at the same time.

The water has refused to speak at the moment, said council spokesman Mr. Aron Dote.

When the money is used

The mayor’s budget plan includes $3.97 billion for regular spending and $1.11 billion for construction projects.

The administration plans to boost homelessness services by adding a second facility to its Homelessness and Homelessness Outreach (HONU) program at a cost of nearly $400 million.

Transportation is great. The city is spending more than $120 million to operate its Skyline train, which opened its second section in October and is now connected to the airport. The goal is to double the number of riders by the end of the year from 12,000 a day to 25,000. A total of 35 million dollars has also been earmarked for new buses and minivans, with a total of 22 million dollars expected to come from federal funds.

Affordable housing mixed-use improvements would receive $100 million, and about $27 million would go toward renovating or creating low-income housing. The mayor is also setting a budget of four million dollars to encourage the construction of low-rise rental houses through his Bill 7 project, which council members are discussing the issues of slow development and the lack of power of neighbors who oppose some of these projects.

Parks would benefit from up to 80 million dollars in capital improvements and the mayor proposed a budget of 4.5 million dollars for security guards in various parks.

While most city revenues are expected to be flat compared to last year, one big increase is an additional $35 million annually in sewer revenue. This money represents one tenth of the money this year that is going to improve the sewer system to meet the needs of the government.