A new Honolulu City Council resolution directs that all federal "bus funds" be removed from the financial plan guiding construction of the island’s cash- strapped rail project.

Typically those so-called 5307 funds are used to maintain and repair local buses and Handi-Vans. The Council’s 8-1 vote Wednesday to adopt the measure is intended to prevent the rail project from tapping some $210 million in bus funds to help close the project’s massive budget gap instead.

It further reflects Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s pledge late last year not to use those federal bus funds to help ease the rail budget crisis. Such a move "would decimate our bus system," he added Wednesday.

However, keeping those bus funds away from rail financing also means that officials will need to replace the dollars with dollars from somewhere else in order to appease federal transit officials — and that the rail project will face a shortfall of as much as $910 million based on current projections.

"I don’t know where they’re going to fill the hole, but they agreed to take it out," Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi said of the bus funds after Wednesday’s vote.

Councilman Brandon Elefante, the lone dissenting vote, called to defer the measure until after a four-member Council delegation, including Elefante, returns from meeting with federal officials on rail financing during its trip to Washington, D.C., scheduled for Saturday through Wednesday.

"I’d like to hear from our federal officials before we move forward with this and see that if removing the $210 million will perhaps maybe jeopardize the process," Elefante said Wednesday.

At a hearing on the resolution last week, Councilman Ikaika Anderson questioned whether the City Council could remove those bus funds during its budget approvals for rail.

Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Executive Director Dan Grabauskas responded that he would have to look into it.

Council Chairman Ernie Martin, meanwhile, affirmed at that hearing that the Council did indeed have the power to remove the 5307 funds during its budget approvals — even if the Federal Transit Administration didn’t commit to removing them from rail’s financial plan or if HART felt obligated to keep in those dollars.

Local transit officials added those dollars to the 2012 financial plan as a way to bolster it, even though using that funding source bothered local leaders, bus advocates and federal officials alike. Local transit officials said the bus funds would be used only as a last resort.

Then, when Grabauskas announced late last year that the project was on course to go at least a half-billion dollars over budget, those dollars suddenly came into play.

The fact that officials never intended to use the $210 million in bus funds showed that rail’s financial plan always was on "shaky ground," Kobayashi added Wednesday.

Caldwell and rail officials are currently trying to persuade state legislators to extend the general excise tax surcharge funding the rail project — but many of those lawmakers have questioned why the tax needs to be extended now and have requested more financial information.

Star-Advertiser reporter Gordon Pang contributed to this report.