Bid to short-circuit rail tax puts jobs, funds at risk
Yes, the state is hurting for money. But proposals by the state administration and lawmakers — divert a tax for the city rail project to pay state bills — is a disastrous idea.
Anyone tracking the rollercoaster twists and turns of mass-transit planning over the decades realizes this city's record of indecision is well known in the nation's capital. How many heads must be shaking in Washington now?
A few reasons to feel exasperated with all this:
And this is not likely the last time they find themselves to be political rivals, as the 2010 campaign comes into view.
Public interests must trump politics in decisions affecting one of the most important public works projects in Hawai'i's history.
The latest storm clouds threatening Honolulu's fixed-rail project blew in during the state Legislature's opening day. The state's tax director, Georgina Kawamura, outlined the bleak budgetary picture while floating ideas for raising more revenues.
These included the use of the rail tax surcharge for state purposes. In addition to the Lingle administration's idea, Hanabusa suggested a hiatus for the rail tax, presumably as a form of relief to taxpayers during difficult times.
Both plans are wrongheaded. A general excise tax holiday of a half percentage point would have too little impact on taxpayer wallets to help the economy. And redirecting the tax to the general fund, as the administration suggests, will prove costly in the long run.
Specifically, disrupting local transit financing risks a delay in federal approval for the project and holds up the federal share of the money — hundreds of millions of dollars desperately needed in Hawai'i. The construction salaries the project generates will trickle down to benefit the rest of the economy.
Delay also will endanger the investment of private money in the transit-oriented development projects envisioned around each of the train stops. That's more jobs, more tax revenue that the city and state governments need.
Hawai'i's Congressional delegation has two members well placed to shepherd the rail project through. U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono sits on the key Subcomittee on Infrastructure and Transportation.
Even more fortuitously, U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, and he has repeatedly warned leaders back home against sending mixed signals.
"One of the major reasons why our transit project has received federal support, up until now, is because there is a dedicated source of local funding in place," Hirono told The Advertiser. "Any move that would jeopardize that dedicated source, I think, would raise concerns."
In this economy, there are many cities eager for federal construction funds. If the state waters down the commitment from Honolulu, why wouldn't the committee, and the Federal Transit Administration, simply hand the approval to the next city on the list?
This is the time for the Congressional delegation to speak up — loudly — against this tax diversion. The folly of the state's proposed money grab should be apparent to everyone, but it's plain that taxpayers need advocates from D.C. to defend their interests.
Otherwise, politicians who are treating this crucial public-works project like a political football are going to seize control. Honolulu has made too much hard-fought progress to let that happen.
