DFS Hawaii, Ko Olina Resort and Marina, and NCL America pitched in a combined $120,000 to underwrite Gov. Linda Lingle's Asia trade missions in the past two years, according to documents released by Lingle aides yesterday.

Democratic and Republican legislators praised the governor for making the documents public, a move first requested by The Advertiser in June.

"It's important for us to know where they're getting their money from if they're not getting it from us," said state Sen. Shan Tsutsui, D-4th (Kahului), vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

"There's no good reason to keep it quiet," added state Sen. Sam Slom, R-8th (Kahala, Hawai'i Kai). "It's the controversy that businesses don't like, not the fact that the information is public."

Lingle has raised more than $827,000 in cash and in-kind contributions from Hawai'i businesses and organizations since 2003 to defray the cost of state trade missions. The donations are in addition to actual travel expenses, which participating businesses paid separately.

Lingle economic aide Ted Liu says the business donors are needed to offset the costs of trips such as last summer's 200-person trade mission to China and South Korea.

Money raised by sponsors paid for a variety of trip costs, including about $69,000 for entertainment expenses, according to the documents.

Lingle hosted a $9,500 reception at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and a $13,600 reception for the governor of China's Guangdong province. The contributions also paid for $31,860 in travel expenses and honorariums to Island entertainers who accompanied Lingle, including Willie K and Amy Gilliom.

Sponsorship money for the 2005 China trip was funneled through the nonprofit Pacific & Asian Affairs Council, which helped coordinate the mission and kept nearly $7,000 for its services, according to the documents.

Funneling the money through the nonprofit simplified the process of raising and spending funds, said Liu, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. It also meant Lingle was not obligated to report details of the contributions.

Last summer, Liu said disclosing how much money each sponsor gave would make it difficult to secure future sponsorships. The Advertiser then filed a request for the information based on the Freedom of Information Act.

Lingle and Liu decided to release the information this week after The Advertiser learned last week that Liu had promised a special package of "title sponsor benefits" to a company asked to contribute $50,000 for future trade missions.

In a letter dated Dec. 5, Liu said the "title sponsor" would get access to foreign government leaders and "VIP events (such as backstage or after-show parties)."

DFS, Ko Olina and NCL all were major sponsors of the 2004 and 2005 China trips, but it is unclear whether they were promised similar benefits as those described in Liu's Dec. 5 letter. The Lingle administration hasn't released solicitation letters for those trips.

Mike Nelson, a Ko Olina vice president who traveled to China with state officials, said the resort did not get any special access to Lingle or foreign officials.

"I don't think there was special attention given to any one group," he said. "I didn't get that sense.

"We were there, really, in an exploratory sense to see what's going on in the China market."

NCL, which spent $35,000 sponsoring last year's mission to China, said the trip helped promote travel to Hawai'i, which ultimately helps the cruise line.

"Meeting government officials and tourism-industry executives from China was very effective in creating awareness of the growing cruise industry in Hawai'i, and in promoting Hawai'i as a premiere travel destination," said Robert Kritzman, NCL executive vice president, in a written statement.

"In our view, we participated with only the good intention of helping the administration build relationships with China and market Hawai'i as a desirable place to do business."

The largest sponsor, DFS, a duty-free retailer, gave $35,000 in cash and $15,000 worth of in-kind contributions in response to solicitations by the Lingle administration.

"DFS saw this as an excellent opportunity to get to know how to break down the impediment to increasing PRC (Chinese) arrivals in Hawai'i, and also to showcase our business," said Sharon Weiner, DFS Hawaii group vice president, in a e-mail, commenting on the trip last week.

GOVERNMENT TIES

All three of the top contributors have business dealings with the state.

Developers of Ko Olina were granted a $75 million state tax credit in 2003 to help finance construction of an aquarium.

NCL America, the largest cruise operator in Hawai'i, has two ships that run weeklong inter-island cruises using state-run ports.

DFS operates the duty-free concession inside the state-run Honolulu International Airport. In 2003, the state granted about $15 million in concessions to DFS Group Ltd. in settling a dispute over $49 million in back rent covering duty-free shops around the Islands.

CONCEPT SUPPORTED

While lawmakers interviewed yesterday didn't object to business sponsorship of trade missions, they did object to promising special benefits in exchange for large contributions.

Democrat Tsutsui said he was troubled by Liu saying "title" trade mission sponsors would get access to foreign government leaders and VIP events.

"One of the more important things is to make sure if a department is soliciting these, that they're up-front and public about it," Tsutsui said.

Liu has defended the practice, saying that trip sponsors might get access to certain meetings if attendance was limited by Chinese officials. Beyond that, he said, sponsorships only bought businesses larger advertising at particular venues and in certain brochures.

Slom, the Republican senator, said he saw no problem with seeking sponsors for state trade missions. However, such solicitations should be vetted by state ethics officials, and the names and amounts of sponsorships and what that money was used for should be public information, he said.

"I think the whole concept basically is a good one, in that companies are paying for it rather than taxpayers," Slom said.

State Rep. Jon Riki Karamatsu, D-41st (Waipahu, Village Park, Waikele), attended portions of the China trade mission and said he saw the value of the administration getting sponsors to defray some of the costs.

Karamatsu, the chairman of the House Economic Development and Business Concerns Committee, said public-private partnerships are important to business development. He said he would be willing to work with the administration on guidelines to avoid any appearance of impropriety in future trade missions.

"I didn't see anything improper, in my opinion," Karamatsu said.

Senate Minority Leader Fred Hemmings, R-25th (Kailua, Waimanalo, Hawai'i Kai), also praised public-private partnerships but cautioned against leaving the impression that companies have to pay for special treatment from the government.

"Certainly there should be no quid pro quo. There shouldn't be pay-to-play," Hemmings said. "I think the wrong impression was left by Ted Liu's letter."

"I think at best, it's an ethical hazard zone," Ihara said. "It's reminiscent of pay-to-play, where you're part of the Hawai'i team."

While the administration made public the identities, sponsorship amounts and expenditures for Lingle's two trade missions to China, similar details for more than $367,000 in private/public-sector expenses on other trade missions were not disclosed.