After days and nights of testimony, private meetings and public pleas, the city and the state Legislature are reaching decision time on the over-budget, 20-mile heavy rail system now under construction.

Essentially the Legislature, after giving a good scolding, is preparing to tell the city: "Oh, whatever."

If the city gets five more years of money to bail out the now-estimated nearly $6 billion rail line, Oahu taxpayers get five more years of increased general excise tax increases. No one gets any assurances that the project will be finished by the new date.

One could argue that just five more years of tax increases is a good deal because earlier this month, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell was asking the Legislature for 25 more years of increased rail-building taxes.

Of course, Caldwell was asking for extra time and money because city officials say they would like to extend the rail line to the University of Hawaii’s Manoa campus.

Yet rail was originally sold as a $3.5 billion project going to UH — but that was then. This is about making up today’s deficit.

The state Senate did a good job of dressing-down the Caldwell administration’s planning for rail’s future costs.

"Your Committee warns the City and County of Honolulu that it should not rely on any future legislation that would extend the surcharge and allow the City and County of Honolulu to use the proceeds to fund the operating and maintenance cost of the integrated mass transit system," reads the Ways and Means committee report on the bailout bill, House Bill 134.

"The City … estimates that the integrated system will require a massive annual subsidy, recognizing that fare box revenues will not be sufficient to pay for the entire operating and maintenance cost of the integrated system. Yet, the City has not committed to using any specific revenue source for the subsidy," the report notes.

"Nor is your Committee encouraged by the discussion at the public hearing regarding the City and County of Honolulu’s admitted difficulty with formulating a viable and sustainable financial plan to address the operating and maintenance cost that does not depend on continued surcharge revenues," the report says.

If the rail tax is extended to 2027, there will be more chances for the state to lecture Caldwell and company — but Ways and Means chairwoman Sen. Jill Tokuda adopts a "wait until your father gets home" tone to the warning.

The city is told that it will both "monitor HART and the City" and "scrutinize the City … in order to ensure completion."

The key is that after all the fuming and dirty looks, the city is likely to get five more years of tax money.

It also means that the city will face no consequences if rail is still not built or paid for except another march across the street to the state Capitol to beg for even more money.

And that is the real bottom line.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.