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A controversial and costly state plan to build a vast campus for state, county and federal first responders in Mililani may have hit a funding snag for a second straight year.
Last week, a bill to appropriate $100 million for building just part of the planned project’s main road and other infrastructure failed to meet a committee advancement deadline and appears dead.
While it’s possible that funding will be inserted into a state budget bill like last year, it’s not assured that the money will be approved or released by the governor to further work on the First Responder Technology Campus.
The project — estimated to cost $315 million to $470 million — would create an operations base with offices, classrooms, warehouse space, housing, a hotel, dorms, retail space, a cybersecurity data center and training facilities, including an indoor shooting range for individual, and in some cases shared, use by up to 19 law enforcement, fire, defense and other emergency response agencies.
Much of the project would be paid for by the state, possibly supplemented by federal funding, while agencies would be responsible for their share of the facilities.
Rep. Amy Perruso, chair of the House Committee on Higher Education and Technology, declined to hold a hearing on the campus funding measure, Senate Bill 1469, after it passed the full Senate on March 7 in a 24-0 vote, followed by a 6-1 vote on March 14 by the House Committee on Water and Land.
Perruso (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore Village-Mokuleia) said the project, which is slated for land in her district, is an unnecessary and imprudent use of so much money when other needs exist that she considers more important.
Despite the demise of SB 1469, Perruso is concerned there will be an effort to insert funding for the project into a budgetary bill before the May 4 end of this year’s legislative session.
“I’m sure that’s going to happen,” she said. “That’s definitely going to be a conversation. Just because we didn’t hear the bill doesn’t mean that the intent disappears.”
Perhaps the project’s biggest champion, Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz (D, Mililani-Wahiawa-Whitmore Village), said it’s possible that he will insert an appropriation into a budget bill as chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
Dela Cruz also is hopeful that Gov. Josh Green may seek an appropriation or approve of one for the project after a meeting Wednesday between Green and several proponents of the campus plan representing state and city agencies involved.
A spokesperson in Green’s office said Thursday the governor is weighing all the information presented and does not yet have a position on funding.
Dela Cruz helped shape an early vision for the project in his district close to a decade ago, in response to a need for new facilities for a number of agencies. Those needs have grown over time, but he hasn’t always been successful at ensuring campus funding, despite chairing a committee that serves as a gatekeeper for legislation requiring state funding.
To date, about $17 million has been spent on the project, which included buying the 243-acre site from Castle & Cooke Inc. for $9.8 million in 2017, after purchase money was appropriated in 2014, and $7 million to produce a market study, conceptual plans, a recently completed environmental review and other things related to planning and design.
Yet other efforts at the Legislature in prior years to advance the project further have been derailed amid disagreements between members of the House and Senate.
In 2019, $55 million in construction financing for the campus was inserted into an omnibus capital improvement funding bill through an amendment made by Ways and Means led by Dela Cruz. But in a House-Senate conference committee, the $55 million appropriation was nixed.
Instead, a $15 million appropriation was agreed upon to buy 19 acres of adjacent undeveloped land from Castle & Cooke for use as a community arts center and “ancillary support” to the planned first responders tech park. No such purchase has been made.
More legislative wrangling in 2022 occurred over providing money for development.
Initially, no money for the campus was included in last year’s initial draft budget bill produced in the House. An amendment made by Ways and Means in the Senate added $10 million for planning, design, construction and equipment. Then in the final draft hashed out by members of a House-Senate conference committee that included Dela Cruz and Perruso, $17.8 million was added for campus planning, design and land acquisition, plus $35 million to start construction.
None of that $52.8 million was realized, as then-Gov. David Ige vetoed those items in the budget bill.
This year, there have been many divisive public comments on SB 1469, which would provide $100 million over the next two fiscal years to begin construction, with full build-out projected in six phases over 15 years, starting with a road forecast to cost $150 million all by itself.
Nearly 30 people testified against the bill at a Feb. 7 Ways and Means hearing, including some who said the land once planted in pineapple would better be used for food production, some who said the money would be better spent on other needs including affordable housing, and a few who compared the project to a police and fire training complex planned for a forested area of Atlanta, where protesters have railed against a plan they derisively call “Cop City.”
“I feel shame that members of the state Senate are promoting this travesty by fast-tracking it,” Ruta Jordans said in written testimony to Ways and Means members. “At a time when there are so many real-life social needs in Hawaii for affordable housing, local food, forests, sufficient clean water, etc., this bill would take vital agricultural land and build a military super playground, using climate change as the reason.”
Moving some existing agency facilities out of flood zones, tsunami evacuation zones and areas expected to be affected by future sea-level rise has been part of the rationale for the campus. Other reasons include reducing facility maintenance costs by sharing facilities, reducing needs to do some training on the mainland and allowing some agencies, such as the Sheriff Division of the state Department of Public Safety and the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, to move out of outdated or scattered sites.
Eight state and two county agencies testified in support of the bill at the hearing, including the new state Department of Law Enforcement, Hawaii Emergency Management, the Hawaii Office of Homeland Security, the Honolulu Emergency Services Department and the state Office of Enterprise Technology Services.
Four federal agencies expected to be part of the campus — the U.S. Office of Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Fire Department — did not submit testimony.
The Honolulu Police Department said it supports the campus project but expressed concern that it lacks funding to help pay for some proposed facilities that duplicate things HPD already has.
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PROPOSED USERS
Expected users of a Hawaii first responder campus:
FEDERAL
>> U.S. Office of Homeland Security Investigations
>> U.S. Marshals Service
>> Federal Bureau of Investigation
>> Federal Fire Department
STATE
>> Hawaii Technology Development Corp.
>> Hawaii Emergency Management Agency
>> Hawaii National Guard
>> Office of Homeland Security/Fusion Center
>> Department of Transportation Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighters
>> Department of Transportation Harbor Police
>> Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife
>> Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement
>> Department of Public Safety
>> Office of Enterprise Technology Services
>> University of Hawaii Community College System
COUNTY
>> Department of Emergency Management
>> Emergency Medical Services
>> Honolulu Police Department
>> Honolulu Fire Department
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