Many social service agencies have found the changes “very unsettling,” said Lisa Maruyama, president and chief executive officer of the Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations.

“The process at the Legislature is very different. Budget decisions have been given to committees,” she said in a recent interview. “It’s less clear to understand who the decision-makers are at any point in the process … We’re getting a lot of, ‘I don’t know what’s going on.’”