City budget tweaks benefit bus riders and climate staff but not drivers

The City Council Budget Committee on Wednesday restored funding for seven staff positions in the new Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency, and agreed to do away with two of three planned rate increases for TheBus and TheHandi-Van riders.

But in order to balance the city’s $2.45 billion operating budget, the committee also agreed to raise the city’s motor vehicle weight tax as well as metered parking rates.

The changes are among the final touches being made by the committee as it moves out the budget package to the full Council for a final vote on June 7. Because the meeting stretched until 4 p.m., Budget Chairman Joey Manahan decided to continue the agenda at 11:30 a.m. today, when the committee will take up raising hotel-­resort property tax rates and nonkamaaina rates for playing at municipal city golf courses.

Committee members said they agreed to restore $134,694 for the seven positions in the Climate Change Office. An amendment to the Honolulu Charter approved in November by 59 percent of Oahu residents created the agency tasked with coordinating the efforts by government entities to reduce and fight the effects of climate change.

Councilman Brandon Elefante said he initially supported cutting the Climate Change Office budget, but changed his mind after speaking with newly appointed Resiliency Officer Joshua Stanbro and others closely monitoring climate change issues. Stanbro is leading the new office, and a $135,000 annual grant from the Rockefeller Foundation is expected to pay his salary the first two years.

Meanwhile, the committee voted to change Bill 28, the Caldwell administration’s plan to increase bus and paratransit rates, so that there would be only one increase, on Jan. 1.

Elefante proposed the change and said he did so in response to concerns raised by passengers and their advocates that the rate increases would hit Honolulu residents least able to absorb paying more. Riders would have seen their fares rise twice in 2018 and then a third time in 2019, he said.

The daily bus single fare would rise to $2.75, a one-day pass to $5.50 and the monthly pass to $70 beginning Jan. 1. TheHandi-Van single fare would rise to $2.50, up from $2.

Transportation Services Director Wes Frystacki asked the committee to reconsider the additional hikes and warned that with the change, “we might be back pretty soon” for further increases.

TheHandi-Van fares were last raised in 2001, while TheBus riders last saw a fare hike in 2009, he said. DTS officials had been hoping “to kind of catch up” with recommendations made by recent studies showing the city’s recommended fare box recovery rate of 27 to 33 percent was not being met.

Barbara Leong of the Assistance Technology Resource Centers of Hawaii argued against any rate hikes for TheHandi-Van riders, many of whom they serve. “Any increase in fares is going to make a significant difference since persons with disabilities are the least likely to be hired in the state of Hawaii.”

The committee also voted unanimously to advance Bill 10, a proposal to increase the weight tax by 1 cent in each of the next two years, to 6 cents per pound for most vehicles on Jan. 1, 2018, and then to 7 cents per pound on Jan. 1, 2019. Trucks would go to 6.5 cents per pound in January and then 7.5 cents in 2019.

Budget Director Nelson Koyanagi said each 1-cent increase is estimated to bring in $25 million annually for city coffers, so the plan is expected to bring in $12.5 mil­ lion in 2018 and $50 million in 2019. For the driver of a Toyota Camry, each 1-cent increase represents $33 to $36 more each year.

The committee also moved out Bill 12, doubling metered parking rates downtown to $3 an hour from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Waikiki metered stalls would also go to $3 an hour, between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. in areas where it is now $1.50 an hour, and to $1.50 an hour where it is now 75 cents an hour.

Metered parking rates were last raised in 2004, when the most common rate went to $1.50 an hour from $1 per hour, Frystacki said.

This year’s budget is the first to be handled by the Budget Committee with Manahan as chairman. He replaced longtime committee leader Ann Kobayashi under a Council leadership shake-up in December.