Rail-financing controversy sure to take politicians’ futures for a ride

Back in February, Mayor Kirk Caldwell concluded his legislative pleading for more money for his costly, over-budget rail project by whimpering, “You did give us a little bit of a scorching.”

Perhaps he was singed, but no richer. The Senate gave Caldwell no new money. Instead, Sen. Jill Tokuda, Ways and Means chairwoman, let the city keep most of the subsidy the state awarded itself to administer the rail tax, slapped Caldwell around a bit and closed the piggy bank.

“If this is your No. 1 priority, then you make hard (choices); you make cuts,” Tokuda said in a Star-Advertiser report.

“Oahu residents don’t want us to break our promise again,” she said, referring to the state’s 2015 approval of a rail tax extension after Caldwell and Company said that would likely be enough.

“They think we’re liars,” Tokuda said.

When Caldwell and his train finally got some proposed money, it came when the rail tax reauthorization bill, Senate Bill 1183, was passed last week, thanks to Rep. Sylvia Luke, chairwoman of the House Finance Committee.

Luke reluctantly agreed to extending the rail tax surcharge until 2029, four years after the much-delayed project is estimated to be finished.

That gift gives Caldwell another $1.3 billion to finish the project.

So while Luke said in a House speech that “the call for cost control and accountability have pretty much been ignored,” Caldwell is saying that the extra $1.5 billion given two years ago and the $1.3 billion in the new bill is still not enough.

After campaigning on a pledge to not use property taxes to fund rail, Caldwell last week put in motion plans to do just that.

“If we don’t get an extension of the surcharge to the full 10 years I’m asking, then we have to find other sources of revenue to build the project,” Caldwell said in reaction to the House vote for the new rail tax extension.

Luke said “threatening the public with a property tax increase is doing a disservice to our citizens.”

Caldwell won’t be able to raise taxes by himself; the City Council will also have to vote for the hikes.

Already the Council has been leery of other Caldwell plans to jack up fees or charge residents for garbage collections and services, but a property tax increase would carve out new territory in political unpopularity.

Right now the Council is a collection of political retreads and some new faces.

Ann Kobayashi, Ron Menor and Carol Fukunaga are probably nearing the end of their political shelf life, but others like Kymberly Marcos Pine, Ikaika Anderson and Joey Manahan all imagine themselves doing amazing things in Hawaii politics for many more years.

If the state Legislature holds the line on rail tax increases or just allows Luke’s increase to survive, then the decision of more money or less rail comes down to Caldwell and the Council.

How they vote will do much in deciding their political futures. Few songs are sung about politicians voting for tax increases for a project with wavering public support.