The Sunshine Blog: Look who’s taking big city council pay raises after all

The budget primers: If youʻd like to pull back and better understand the Legislatureʻs budgeting process in general, The Blog has two items for your reading list:

The Legislative Reference Bureau website offers “Deciphering the Budget,” which provides “a peek at how the budget process has worked in the past.”

A more thorough look at the process choke-full of information about the current budget comes courtesy of the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice.

The nonprofit’s Hawaiʻi Budget Primer 2024-2025 is easy reading by budget standards, and you’ll come away with a new appreciation for what all goes into the state government’s spending plans and where the money comes from.

For instance, did you know there are actually four budget bills each session? In addition to the gargantuan executive budget known this session as House Bill 300, there are much smaller budgets for the Judiciary (House Bill 400), the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (House Bill 410) and the legislative branch (House Bill 1440).

Those first three are all proceeding through conference committee, with their next hearings scheduled Monday. The legislative branch budget bill has already been passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor.