Money — where to get it and how to spend it — is shaping up as the predominant issue as the 2015 Legislature prepares to convene on Wednesday.

Lawmakers will weigh whether to extend the general excise tax surcharge consumers pay on Oahu to fund rail-transit construction, whether to allow private companies to run financially strapped public hospitals, and how much money the University of Hawaii’s beleaguered Cancer Center and Athletics Department deserve — to name just a few pressing economic issues.

Gov. David Ige, for years the chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, that chamber’s powerful financial arbiter, now exerts influence from the executive branch. His reputation for fiscal prudence constrains expectations for new programs in most state departments, and should temper demands even for those initiatives that do demand more funding.

» GET surcharge for rail: The half-percent Oahu surcharge added to the 4 percent state general excise tax to fund Oahu’s rail project is set to expire at the end of 2022. Now that rail’s estimated cost has ballooned to $6 billion, there’s a proposal to extend the sunset date or lift it altogether; the surcharge has generated $1.4 billion for rail construction since it was first levied in 2007.

Proponents paint this proposed tax increase as an inevitable expense of building rail, but lawmakers should not treat it as a fait accompli. The Legislature, and the City Council, must demand a full accounting of the alternatives. Why isn’t the city aggressively seeking the 10 percent "skim" the state takes for collecting the surcharge on behalf of the city? The city and state seem overreliant on this "temporary" surcharge.

» Health care: Now that a viable private partner has emerged for at least one branch of the state’s public hospital system, lawmakers must swiftly approve the enabling legislation to allow a deal proposed for the Maui Region of the Hawaii Health Systems Corp. to move forward and to encourage similar public-private partnerships throughout the struggling 12-facility system. Opposition from public-worker unions that don’t want civil service jobs converted to private-sector ones helped scuttle previous attempts. Lawmakers must act this session.

Also in this arena: the Hawaii Health Connector, the portal to insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, is supposed to be a self-sustaining nonprofit organization. State funding should be minimal.

» University of Hawaii: Proposals to tax loose tobacco and e-cigarettes are sound on public-health grounds, but will prove short-term fixes financially for the UH Cancer Center. As usage falls, so will funding — just as with the tax revenue from regular tobacco products that are a source of the center’s funding now. The athletics question is even trickier. UH officials insist sports are a community asset, deserving broad support. Is the community expected to show its support by buying tickets to the games, or by extending a general fund bailout?

» Housing and homelessness: Amid the overbuilding of luxury condominiums in urban Honolulu, with sky-high prices out of reach of the average Oahu resident, the state’s plan for a mixed-income housing complex in Palama is a breath of fresh air. The Hawaii Public Housing Authority has emerged as a leader in proposing the kind of livable, affordable units that low-income Honolulu residents need. Its proposals are among many important efforts involving the state, city, businesses and social-service agencies, but they stand out for their creativity and feasibility, and deserve broad support.

» Prisons: Oahu Community Correctional Center in Kalihi sits on prime land ripe for redevelopment along the rail-transit route. The site is better suited for affordable housing and commercial development. The state should move the prison. The cost of doing so is prohibitive without a private partner.

Many other issues loom this session, among them Hawaiian Electric Industries’ proposed sale to a Florida-based energy firm, the push for empowerment in Hawaii’s public schools, and a host of agricultural issues, including the debate over pesticides and GMOs.

The Legislature’s website, http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/, makes it easy to follow bills, read and offer testimony and otherwise become informed about issues. Now’s the time to become an engaged citizen.