Things are coming down to the wire for the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation and its “recovery plan,” or updated financial blueprint for completing the project linking East Kapolei with Ala Moana Center.
It compels decisions between bad and worse choices by HART, and by the Honolulu City Council, in order to move ahead.
The recovery plan, due Nov. 20, spells out how the city proposes to close a shortfall in financing for rail construction. The Federal Transit Administration must sign off on that before it will release the balance of the $1.55 billion in federal support for building the 20-mile alignment and 21 stations.
HART is reviewing a draft of the plan Here are the less-bad choices officials need to make, as soon as possible:
>> The Council must just pull the plug and secure the $44 million needed as part of the city’s share of rail development costs, and put that in the plan. For those who may have forgotten the political battle-royal over the project’s tax base: State lawmakers last year agreed to extend the excise tax surcharge and give rail a cut of the hotel tax, besides; that amounted to a $2.4 billion bailout.
However, under the final deal, no portion of state tax revenue was to pay for project administration — that tab needs to be picked up by the city. The HART administration asserts the project can carry on without actual allotment of $44 million currently on the books, but the Federal Transit Administration is insisting on seeing it there.
The city administration had proposed getting the authority to borrow that much cash, but that could lead down a slippery slope in which the city incurs debt it must pay back, with interest and at taxpayer expense.
Instead, the option proposed by Council Chairman Ernie Martin is preferable, if not ideal. The Council will consider a measure Tuesday to draw the money from the city’s “rainy day” fund and other sources. That measure should pass, and the administration should craft a plan for replenishing the funds — before a true “rainy day” arrives, one hopes.
>> HART officials have to take a deep breath and list its painful “secondary mitigation” measures in the plan, underscoring for the FTA, and the taxpaying public, how hard it will work to avoid taking this step. Most grievous among these cost-cutting moves: delaying the planned $315 million Pearl Highlands Parking Structure and Transit Center, should there be a budgetary crisis.
Yes, should there be a serious economic downturn, HART would need to assure the federal overseers that there are big-ticket cost items to line out. HART is vowing that even the worst-case scenario would be a delay in the Pearl Highland center’s construction until funds become available, not its cancellation.
That had better be true. The transit center is an integral part of this project for multiple reasons. First, it provides a means to bring Central Oahu commuters into the rail system, giving them an entry point to the line just north of the most congested stretch of freeway into Honolulu. That’s an essential component for the city to meet its ridership goals.
Further, the center will be part of the public-private partnership (P3) HART intends to strike as one of its cost-efficiency development strategies. Without it, P3 represents less of a lure for completion of the rail line.
There are other construction cuts HART has to contemplate: using concrete rather than acrylic sound barriers; eliminating lighting between stations; simplifying station canopies; and providing plain support columns rather than the decorated ones at stations. The effect of all that would be dismal.
Andrew Robbins, up for evaluation as HART executive director, thus faces his biggest test so far: Can he deliver on his vow when he started the job — to build to budget — without making such unappealing concessions? Honolulu has to hope he passes that exam.
