City needs reasonable schedule for road repairs

Mayor Kirk Caldwell recently delivered his first State of the City address to a crowd of dignitaries and invited guests at the Mission Memorial Auditorium.

Most of the City Council members were in attendance, taking the time to hear the mayor elaborate on his priorities that have been the focal point of his time in office to date.

Next to his top priority of restoring full bus service, the mayor has set his sights on road repair and maintenance.

You would be hard-pressed to find anyone on the City Council who does not agree with the mayor on the need to repair our roads. But what you do find is apprehension over the high price tag of his ambitious plan for road repair and skepticism about the ability of the city to spend such large sums of money in a timely manner.

In spite of the Council’s rejection of a 5 cent-a-gallon increase in the fuel tax to fund it, the mayor is still focused on re-paving 300 lane miles a year at a total cost of $750 million over the next five years.

Previous testimony from the Department of Design and Construction on existing balances for prior fiscal years revealed that only $1 million of the $100 million appropriated by the Council for road repair this fiscal year had been spent by the end of the third quarter.

When questioned about the ability to execute contracts, the mayor indicated that additional personnel may have to be hired to meet the proposed accelerated schedule of $150 million a year on road repairs.

Do we really want to live beyond our means? Most of the $15 million generated by the mayor’s proposed fuel tax increase would have gone to cover the debt incurred by borrowing $150 million a year for five years. Without any real evidence that the city can spend all of that money on road repairs each year, why incur more debt and subject Oahu drivers to the highest gas tax in the country to pay for it?

There is a better way to approach the problem of road repair and maintenance. The Council budgeted $100 million for road repair last year. Increasing that amount to $120 million this year and 10 percent more each year for the next four years would provide almost the same amount as the mayor has proposed to spend without the need to raise taxes.

These incremental increases to the road repair budget would be contingent on the city’s ability to spend the money allocated each year. Budget decisions would be based on performance and not wishful thinking. While still expensive, it is a more reasonable approach to road repairs and one that provides a transition between the current schedule of repair work and where the city wants to be in five years.

This gradual yet significant increase of resources devoted to road repair and maintenance would also be an annual test of our ability to do the job on time and within budget, with Oahu drivers keeping score.