Calvin Say Supporters Bring Home The Bacon

Hawaii Department of Transportation

Call it government pork, Hawaii-style:

• $8.1 million for construction of a new classroom at Waipahu Elementary School on Oahu.

• $8 million for a Living Learning Center at the University of Hawaii at Hilo on the Big Island.

• $5.6 million for a water heating system at Mayor Wright Homes on Oahu.

• $1.5 million for Haleakala Highway Improvements on Maui.

These expenditures — known as capital improvement projects, or CIPs — are included in the budget bill passed by the Hawaii House of Representatives March 16. In a way, they're the local equivalent of federal earmarks.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee will hold its first hearing on the 220-page measure Monday.

A Civil Beat investigation found that supporters of Speaker Calvin Say had far greater success in securing state dollars than opponents.

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