Top state officials were behind a secretive process that steered millions to a first responders center

The funding for the park shows two aspects of state government often obscured from public view.

First, there are entities like the Hawaiʻi Technology Development Corporation. Attached to departments for funding and administrative purposes, the agencies are quasi-independent, governed by appointed boards composed of a mix of government and industry types. The arrangement, in theory, insulates the attached agencies from political influence.

In this case, however, the opposite seems to be happening. An agency that’s supposed to be developing Hawaiʻi’s high tech economy is steering a fortune to a project unrelated to that mission, on behalf of a powerful senator.

And while the technology development corporation’s board is supposed to be independent, lawmakers this past session showed what can happen to a board member who makes waves: they passed a bill axing him from the board.

Second, there’s the legislative adjustment process, a commonly used tool that lets lawmakers fund projects without going through the more transparent process of putting specific appropriations through public hearings.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the legislative adjustment process, said Beth Giesting, who worked on health policy for two Hawaiʻi governors before becoming director of the Hawaiʻi Budget & Policy Center, a nonprofit think tank. But Giesting said items added that way tend to have popular support.

“This seems unusual and questionable that they’ve got an item that nobody wants put into the budget,” said Giesting, who is now the center’s director emeritus.