Legislators support rail, but haggling continues

If Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell and city rail officials were hoping for easy public relations points last week by pushing one of the non-running trains down the unfinished rail line, they really need a new definition of victory.

Ostensibly, the event was to check to see if the train would clear structures in its path. We can assume this is the kind of tough, clear-eyed, real world engineering that is required because the city and the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation don’t have enough money to go to Home Depot and buy a tape measure to check the height of the train and compare it to the height of any structures looming along the track.

Good news: the train wheel fit the track and the train fits under and through all the structures officials could find along the two-mile test route.

“For engineers this is a great day,” said Krishniah Murthy, HART’s interim executive director and CEO.

Bad news: the rail project is still an estimated $3 billion over budget and there is no clear plan to getting the money.

Last week’s test also served as a metaphor for the rail project, already years behind and billions over budget, as it was being pushed by a tractor down a few miles of empty track.

The latest problem is that the city is unable to raise the money so it must get it from the state. The state has two ways to get the $3 billion for the city: either it gets it from taxpayers and voters, or it gets it from someone else.

Right now, the state Senate is thinking the easiest way to get the money is by running the Oahu general excise tax surcharge for another decade. The state House says the easiest and most painless way is to directly tax tourists by raising the hotel room tax, under a proposal made by Finance Committee chairwoman Rep. Sylvia Luke.

House members argue that HART is starting to run out of federal money to pay for cost overruns and can see problems by the end of the year.

“We are still focused on addressing the shortfall the city will experience,” said House Speaker Scott Saiki.

“My general thought is there is support for the rail project. It is just how we are going to finance it. The House is looking between now and 2024. Even with the GET surcharge, it is not sufficient. That is why we floated the TAT (hotel room tax) proposal,” Saiki said in an interview.

Meanwhile senators are privately saying everyone recognizes “the city and Caldwell are under huge pressure; they will not admit to the financial crisis Honolulu faces.”

One senator who agreed to discuss the situation without attribution said many legislators feel the House will not “do a blind bailout for the city.”

Right now it appears the fate of Honolulu’s rail project comes down to legislative consensus. But, the Senate is still a fractured group that is just a few votes away from another coup, and it is heading into an election year backing another tax increase for Oahu voters.

In comparison, the House appears to have solidified around Saiki’s leadership and Luke’s hotel tax plan.

One legislator said privately that the House’s strongest point is that “Scott and Sylvia won’t buckle.”

Who pays is still undecided.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.