Video by David Corrigan

HILO, Hawaii – The Hawaii County Council passed an operating budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year on Wednesday, and Mayor Billy Kenoi is not happy with it.

The mayor would not say if he would use his power to veto the bill, but he did say he was “baffled” by the council’s actions during an impromptu press conference immediately after the council adjourned.

The mayor had originally proposed a $367 million spending plan, but the council cut millions in order to partially fund a deferred payment to gasB 45 – a payment designed to pre-fund future obligations the county has incurred to fund retirement health care in the future – a $20 million expense.

“It was a thousand pound gorilla,” Council Chair Dominic Yagong said of the looming payment.

“I think we’ve dona a pretty good job of addressing that issue,” said South Kona councilwoman and finance committee chair Brenda Ford of the gasB 45 debt. “Are there still problems in the budget as far as I’m concerned, absolutely.”

“I withdrew a lot of amendments…” said Ford, “because Mr. Yagong proposed a 5.6 million across the board reduction, that the mayor’s going to have to deal with. He didn’t deal with that before he sent the budget to us. And this council has now dealt with it.”

“You cannot expect big savings,” said council chair Yagong, “if everything you are adjusting is to pay a big expense. A 3% difference is because the intention was to deal with the deferral.”

On Tuesday, the council added money for police radios, an amendment introduced by Ford.

Yagong thanked the council, staff and clerk for all their hard work on the matter.

But in the mayor’s office an hour or so later, the feelings were far from celebratory.

“Either the council did not know where to cut,” Kenoi said, “or did not know how to cut, or were afraid to make the difficult decisions to reduce the size and cost of government. All the council did was create a negative account, and put $5.6 million in that account. And we can’t find any precedent for that.”

The cuts the council did make were not looked upon any more favorably, like the $500,000 from the West Hawaii golf subsidy which Kenoi said was “blatantly unfair to the people of West Hawaii.”

The mayor has 10 days from receipt of the approved budget to veto, approve, or let pass without his signature.

Leaders share opinion on budget decisions