The Honolulu City Council has scheduled a special session for April Fools’ Day to consider measures that would signal its support for extending the rail tax, if that’s what’s needed to complete the island’s 20-mile public transit project.
On Wednesday the Council will consider approving on first reading Bill 23, a measure that would remove the Dec. 31, 2022, sunset of Oahu’s 0.5 percent surcharge funding most of the project. The bill doesn’t specify a new sunset date, but city officials say that detail can be added before the measure gains final approval.
Council Chairman Ernie Martin said he "purposely selected April 1st for the special session as an indication that members will not be fooled again by misrepresentations or insufficient information in our deliberations on these very important issues."
The Council’s special session will take place about two weeks before an April 16 deadline in the state Legislature, when the House and Senate send bills still in consideration back to each other for further review.
Each of those chambers has a bill in play that would extend the rail tax to help the project climb out of its deep financial hole. However, in their deliberations over such a controversial and politically risky move, state lawmakers have repeatedly questioned why they haven’t heard formal support from the Council.
"I introduced Bill 23 in direct response to questions raised at the state Legislature over the City Council’s position," Martin said.
Earlier this month Councilman Brandon Elefante sent Martin a letter urging him to schedule a special session ahead of April 16.
During recent meetings and hearings, lawmakers have pressed rail leaders for more answers on how, in just a matter of months, those officials went from reporting that the project was on budget to facing as much as a $1 billion budget gap.
Rail officials have said they first realized in August that project costs would likely spike when they received bids to build nine West Oahu stations, but that they were unable to investigate further until they resolved a challenge over canceling those bids. Still, both the public and lawmakers are demanding more scrutiny.
In recent weeks the Legislature has introduced resolutions asking for project audits, a clearer plan to pay for rail operations, and more efforts to contain costs.
Martin is also recommending a forensic audit of the rail project.
During Wednesday’s session the Council will also weigh Resolution 15-7, which would create a deal for rail to eventually borrow hundreds of millions of dollars leveraged against the city’s general fund. Members of the City Council’s Budget Committee deferred the resolution twice this winter because they had several months to consider the deal before the borrowing starts, and they didn’t want to rush.
Approving that resolution would further signal their support of the rail to the Legislature — even if Council members aren’t thrilled with the project or the answers they’ve been getting about its finances.
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Star-Advertiser reporter Gordon Y.K. Pang contributed to this report.
