Officials overseeing Oahu’s rail transit project reported the Oahu tax dollars that they received this past quarter were about $5 million less than the influx projected under their financial plan.
The project received $48.5 million in general excise tax surcharge dollars for the quarter that included July, August and September, according to a release Friday from the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation.
The 20-mile, 21-station elevated rail system, under construction, was projected to receive $53.8 million during that same period under the project’s 2012 Full Funding Grant Agreement with federal transportation officials, HART spokesman Scott Ishikawa said Friday.
Overall, the estimated $5.26 billion project remains slightly behind pace for the GET surcharge dollars it expects to receive. Rail officials say that the project is short by $40.8 million on those revenues.
The GET is 4 percent statewide except on Oahu, where a half-percent surcharge is imposed to help pay for rail. The excise surcharge went into effect in 2007 and has garnered nearly $1.35 billion since collections since then.
From 2010 until it expires Dec. 31, 2022, the surcharge is expected to generate more than $3.29 billion — about two-thirds of the total cost to build the island’s rail project.
Some $1.55 billion in federal transportation dollars is expected to cover the rest of the project.
This year some of rail’s top leadership, including Mayor Kirk Caldwell, touted the idea of lifting the 2022 sunset to help pay for future rail operations and potentially fund expansions of the line. Lifting that sunset would ensure that visitors to the island, not just local taxpayers, would pay to run rail, supporters say.
State legislators originally gave the city the authority to collect the surcharge. At a recent debate among candidates for governor, former Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, a Republican, opposed extending the surcharge, while state Sen. David Ige, a Democrat, would not commit to potentially extending it.
Former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, a member of the Hawaii Independent Party who had urged the state Legislature to approve the surcharge in 2005, sidestepped the question of extending it.
———
Star-Advertiser reporter Derrick DePledge contributed to this report.
