The Hawaii Legislature appropriated $50 million in its recently passed state budget bill to begin building a 243-acre First Responder Technology Campus on Oahu. The effort has raised concerns about legislative transparency.
Gov. Josh Green unveiled a packed wish list of expenditures he wanted to fund at the start of the 2023 legislative session, at a time when the state coffers were expected to hold a $2 billion surplus.
An effort to fund initial construction of an elaborate state, county and federal first-responder agency campus on Oahu survived a contentious and somewhat opaque legislative budgetary practice this year.