Former Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona on Wednesday night challenged his opponents for governor on taxes, claiming that former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann and state Sen. David Ige would be more inclined to raise taxes because they both supported a general-excise tax surcharge for the Honolulu rail project.

Hannemann had urged the state Legislature to approve the surcharge and Ige voted in 2005 to give the city the authority to levy the tax. Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell has said the rail surcharge, which is set to expire in 2022, should be permanent.

“But the bottom line is this: every single one of you in this room, if you remain on Oahu, you and your children and your grandchildren, you’re going to be responsible for that GET tax that was imposed by the rail project,” Aiona, the Republican, said at town hall style debate sponsored by Hawaii News Now and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center in Kakaako.

Ige, the Democrat, said he has been a strong supporter of rail but would not commit to a potential extension of the rail surcharge beyond its scheduled expiration. An extension could help stabilize rail finances and eventually expand the rail line to UH and other areas. “We need to see the implementation,” he said. “We need to hold the (rail administrators) feet to the fire, to make sure that they give us an efficient and effective system. And then we can look at what expansion (is needed), because I’m confident that it will be a success.”

Aiona said rail is a city, not a state project, and that city and rail administrators had vowed that rail would come in on time and on budget. “Now they want to extend this?” he said. “This is what I’m talking about. This is the kind of leadership you’re going to have if you vote the same way. You’re going to have a leadership that’s going to look to — without any second thought about it — `Yeah, let’s just raise the GET tax.'”

Hannemann, the Hawaii Independent Party candidate, sidestepped the question of extending the rail surcharge but said the state should give up a 10 percent cut of the tax for administrative costs. “It’s a pure out-and-out raid,” he said.