Mayor Kirk Caldwell, along with state lawmakers who soon will decide whether to approve a rail tax extension, faced a chorus of angst and frustration from residents Monday over the direction of Oahu’s transit project.

At a heated town hall meeting at Washington Middle School, a mix of mostly rail opponents and community members concerned about the project’s skyrocketing costs sounded off to the political leaders.

Some speakers expressed concern that extending Oahu’s 0.5 percent general excise tax surcharge past 2022 would burden a community that’s already challenged to make ends meet. Others questioned whether the project is being properly managed — and whether the island could afford it.

"I plead with you, the state lawmakers … I don’t want this tax extension. We already have the highest taxes in the nation," Joey Brown, an 18-year-old student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, implored the panel of county and state lawmakers.

Caldwell told the crowd of 100 or so people that the rail transit system remains critical for an island that’s already overrun with cars and only getting more crowded — despite the project’s ballooning cost overruns and a budget gap of as much as $910 million.

"I do not want to build another freeway on this island, or another major road," Caldwell told the audience Monday. "I want to make better use of the lands that are zoned urban."

Caldwell and rail leaders have insisted that rail will need a tax extension in this legislative session to overcome the project’s fiscal woes and keep construction on schedule. Legislators are weighing two bills that would grant an extension.

Gov. David Ige, meanwhile, has consistently expressed skepticism about the need to extend the tax during this session.

A group of McCully- and Moiliili-area lawmakers, including state Reps. Scott Saiki (D, Downtown-Kaka­ako-McCully), Della Au Belatti (D, Moiliili-Makiki-Tantalus) and Scott Nishi­moto (D, McCully-Moiliili- Kapa­hulu), along with state Sen. Les Ihara (Moiliili-Kai­muki-Palolo) and Hono­lulu City Councilwoman Ann Koba­ya­shi, put together the forum with Caldwell and rail officials.

The organizers were overwhelmed by about 50 written questions in addition to the constant line of residents waiting to take the microphone.

Many of those residents were eager to get the chance to confront Caldwell and rail officials with long-held questions and frustrations.

"You say that we voted on this project in a referendum, (but) the people didn’t have a chance to vote on the alternative," Aiea resident Mike Uechi told Caldwell, expressing deep skepticism that a 2008 referendum vote reflected popular support of the current rail project.

Another UH-Manoa student, Pavel Stan­kov, asked what assurances rail officials could give that there would be no further surprises at the cost of future bid prices for the project. After the meeting, Stan­kov said Hono­lulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Executive Director Dan Grabauskas failed to answer his question.

At the beginning of the town hall, Caldwell said that city officials haven’t done an effective job communicating to the public the issues that rail is facing — and how it suddenly landed in such a deep budget hole.

Caldwell emphasized that he’s "committed to transparency" but maintains the rail project does not need another audit before the Legislature decides whether to pass a GET surcharge extension, because enough third-party audits have already been done.

Not everyone spoke against the project or with deep reservations about its direction Monday. David Nash, a McCully/Moiliili Neighborhood Board member, said he spoke for the "silent majority" that supports rail’s completion. He asked whether there wasn’t a way to "double down and spend more" to get rail done more quickly.

Still, most people in the audience Monday expressed vehement opposition to a GET extension.

"I really wonder why you choose the most regressive tax possible. … You hurt the poorest people on the island," Kai­lua resident Cynthia Frith said. Caldwell responded that he supported the GET tax as a funding source because island visitors pay about a third of it, a fraction she took issue with.