A delay in implementing increases in registration fees and vehicle weight taxes means $19.2 million will not be collected this year for highway maintenance and repairs.
The new fees were supposed to go into effect July 1 on every island.
Drivers registering vehicles before mid-September for stickers that expire before Oct. 31 can celebrate the break they were given from the higher fees. But their lucky timing means the state Department of Transportation’s annual goal of an $86 million budget to repair and maintain state roads across the state will fall short this year.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed a bill on June 8 that implements a costlier weight tax formula for every car, truck and SUV registered each year in Hawaii. Then on June 23, Abercrombie signed a separate bill to increase the annual registration fee for every vehicle to $45 from $25.
The Legislature passed the bills to go into effect on July 1 to help generate nearly $56 million per year to repair potholes and crumbling bridges and maintain lighting, landscaping and road signs on state highways across the islands, said Dan Meisenzahl, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.
But employees with the city Department of Information Technology who maintain the antiquated, 1960s-era vehicle registration computer system for every island did not begin recalibrating the system until Abercrombie signed the bills, said Dennis Kamimura, Honolulu’s licensing administrator.
He told the Department of Information Technology that Abercrombie had been vetoing bills at the time, "and we don’t know if the governor will veto this bill, too," Kamimura said.
Even after Abercrombie signed both bills, Kamimura said, it would have been "impossible" for the Department of Information Technology to create separate programs in time to accommodate registrations paid before the July 1 due date — and for the higher fees paid after July 1, Kamimura said.
"We have a 1968 or 1969 system," Kamimura said. "There are multiple programs that need to be changed just for a fee increase. We need to make sure all vehicle renewals are in fact correct. We don’t want glitches where some guys are charged the old rate and some guys are charged the new rate."
Instead, the higher fees for all new vehicle registrations will go into effect sometime around Sept. 16 for registrations that expire on Oct. 31 and take effect Nov. 1.
DOT officials knew about the delay and were planning for a one-time shortfall, Meisenzahl said.
Transportation officials "slowed down spending" as a result, Meisenzahl said, but have not postponed any repair or maintenance projects.
"Because we had been talking to the counties, we factored in that we wouldn’t collect the fees until Nov. 1," he said.
