In case you haven’t noticed, Hawaiʻi’s state budget is a very difficult thing to make sense of unless you’re trained as a forensic accountant.

Unfortunately for the taxpayers, it’s a necessary read if you’re concerned about how $25 billion of our money is being spent. Or if you want to understand the priorities of the legislative and executive branches.

How much money does the Department of Education get, for example? Where does all that capital improvement project money go? And where does the state get its kala?

Now the nonprofit Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice has taken a major step toward enlightenment with its recently released Hawaiʻi Budget Primer. It breaks down in simple language, graphics, charts and photos the various components of the budgets for the administration, the Legislature, the Judiciary and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.