Mar 9, 2021
The county budget process is almost underway, and most Maui residents are unaware that the budget will once again violate the County Charter.
That is because it will lack the required anticipatory revenues from unassessed and uncollected developer agreements made with the county.
A whistleblower, who now works in the Mayor’s Office, alleged that these agreements were authorized and uncollected for decades by Maui County Department of Public Works in collaboration with county attorneys.
To make matters worse, multiple deferrals of these infrastructure costs, using a one-time-only deferral subdivision ordinance, were approved in violation of that same county ordinance. This resulted in Maui County Council voting unanimously in 2017 to recommend a county audit of these agreements.