Tokuda out due to rail, Souki also to lose post

House Speaker Joe Souki and Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Jill Tokuda are expected to be ousted from their positions of power today in an end-of-session leadership shakeup.

Tokuda’s removal was triggered in part by the volatile debate over the Honolulu rail project. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Souki is also a rail casualty. He’s expected to be replaced by House Majority Leader Scott Saiki, according to House sources.

Souki declined comment when reached by phone Wednesday night. He served as speaker of the House from 1993 to 1999, then retook the top post in 2013.

Tokuda confirmed she has been told she will be removed, and said a group of her colleagues plans to name Senate Majority Whip Donovan Dela Cruz as the new Ways and Means chairman.

That is a much-coveted position because the chairman controls all appropriation and tax measures in the Senate, which gives that person enormous leverage over almost all issues that move through the state Legislature.

“It’s power. It’s a power grab, and rail was the catalyst,” Tokuda said in an interview Wednesday. “You can sugarcoat it and claim all kinds of stuff about transparency and all this other stuff, but let’s cut to the chase and say what this is really about.”

Dela Cruz refused to discuss the matter, other than to suggest that any news of the leadership change should be delayed until after the Senate meets today. Senate President Ron Kouchi did not respond to a request for comment.

Tokuda this year staked out a perilous position on the rail issue when she strongly criticized the city’s management of the project in a February hearing, and rejected the city’s request for an extension of the half-percent general excise tax surcharge on Oahu that is providing most of the funding for rail.

That GET surcharge is now scheduled to end in 2027, but city officials say they need as much as $3 billion more to complete the 20-mile rail line. The partially built line is far over budget, with the estimated price tag for the project increasing from $5.26 billion in late 2014 to nearly $10 billion today, including financing costs.

Tokuda advanced a bill that reduced the state’s share of the excise surcharge, a step that would have provided about $300 million in additional funding for rail. City officials said that was far too little money, and warned it would force them to raise property taxes or city fees to complete the project.

Kouchi and Senate Transportation Committee Chairwoman Lorraine Inouye then proposed a new plan last week to extend the GET surcharge for rail by 10 years, but Tokuda blocked the proposal. Under Senate rules, that 10-year plan could not become the official Senate position in negotiations with the House without Tokuda’s consent, and she refused to give it.

Tokuda’s hard-line position alarmed rail supporters including the construction trade unions, which have long backed the project as a way to create jobs for their members.

Last week, Tokuda and House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke brokered an alternative proposal to extend the excise surcharge for just one year, and increase the state hotel room tax by 2.75 percentage points as part of a package to raise an additional $1.7 billion for rail.

That triggered a strong lobbying effort from representatives of the hotel and visitor industry who fiercely opposed the hotel tax increase. The Senate then rejected that proposal Wednesday in a telling 16-9 vote with Tokuda on the losing side, and instead approved a proposal for a 10-year extension of the excise surcharge.

Those Senate votes set the stage for Tokuda’s removal, lawmakers said.

Tokuda said she won’t try to guess why her colleagues are moving against her, but said, “I don’t regret any of the decisions that I have made,” adding, “I do believe that I acted in the best interests of both the Senate and the people during my tenure as Ways and Means chair, and I really appreciate the opportunities I have been given.”

She continued: “Whenever you take on a position like Ways and Means chair, you understand that it comes with a lot of responsibilities, but it also comes with a number of liabilities as well. People aren’t always going to agree with you, you’re not going to make everyone happy, and that’s not even talking about the public. That’s within your own body. That’s why oftentimes Ways and Means chairs don’t last for considerable periods of time, because you’re forced to make very difficult decisions.”

Tokuda has also been the subject of complaints from former Senate President Donna Mercado Kim that Tokuda was not sharing enough information about the details of the state budget. Tokuda disagrees, but in any event said that was not the reason she lost her position.

Tokuda was instrumental in removing Kim as Senate president and elevating Kouchi to that post in 2015, and she said she believes Kouchi wanted her to remain as the Ways and Means chairwoman but was unable to make that happen.

“I think that it could signal a different time for the Senate in terms of, it may be one position now, but changes later? Absolutely,” she said. “It seem like it’s a new day for the Senate, especially in the way we treat each other and the decorum.”

Lawmakers are now deadlocked over how to provide additional funding for the rail project, and it is unclear whether the issue will be resolved by today’s scheduled adjournment.