Mayor Kirk Caldwell optimistic about Honolulu rail funding after meeting federal officials in D.C.

Following a meeting with federal transit officials Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Mayor Kirk Caldwell and City Council Chairman Ikaika Anderson said they’re optimistic that a recovery plan for the city’s over-budget $9.2 billion rail project will be approved.

That would clear the way for the city to receive $744 million in federal funding that city officials deem critical for construction of the 21-station, East Kapolei-­to-Ala Moana project. The Federal Transit Administration has been withholding the contribution pending approval of a recovery plan requiring the city to explain how the project will be financed after its price tag ballooned from a $5.2 billion budget in 2012.

Caldwell said FTA Acting Administrator Jane Williams and other officials “were hopeful that they can give us an answer on whether the recovery plan is acceptable or not within a month or so. My feeling is that it was positive, and I’m hopeful.”

FTA officials also want to see the details of the bid proposals being submitted later this year by potential private partners the city hopes to bring aboard to finish construction, Caldwell said.

If the proposals come in “within the zone that is close to the affordability cap, I think we can expect to see the first tranche of money coming from the FTA in the first half of 2020,” he said.

“Compared to other meetings I’ve had with the FTA, this is one of the more positive ones I’ve had in the past couple of years,” he said.

Anderson, who accompanied the mayor at the FTA meeting along with freshman Councilman Tommy Waters and Caldwell Chief of Staff Gary Kurokawa, said he also came away optimistic. Williams “appeared very upbeat and optimistic at this meeting, in my opinion,” he said.

The Council voted 8-1 last week to approve the updated recovery plan, via Resolution 19-115, and Andrew Robbins, chief executive officer of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, hand-delivered the plan to FTA Region IX Administrator Ray Tellis on Friday.

Robbins said then that he expects the city to receive a $250 million portion of the FTA funding in 2020, with the remaining amount paid out incrementally through 2025.

The FTA required that the plan include proof that the city put in more upfront money for construction, something the city’s elected officials had been reluctant to do until recently. The Council inserted $25 million for that purpose as part of the city’s capital improvements budget for the upcoming 2020 budget year.

That funding is supposed to come through a bond issuance later this year, a move that must be approved by six members of the nine-member Council sometime in the fall.

In total the city is now supposed to put in $117 million through 2027.

But Caldwell said he’s hopeful that a future mayor will be able to convince the Legislature to allow the general excise tax to cover part of that amount. He said it was “partly politics” that resulted in the city being forced by state lawmakers to come up with some of the construction funding through property taxes.

Caldwell’s second term is done at the end of 2020, and a new mayor will be inaugurated in January 2021. “I think it was partly politics, what occurred, and I’m hoping with a new mayor perhaps that will change,” he said.

The mayor said he also met with members of the Department of Housing and Urban Development about ways the agency’s programs and initiatives could be tapped by the city to help with its homelessness and affordable-housing issues.

Caldwell, Anderson and Waters are in Washington participating in the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce’s “Hawaii on the Hill” event, which showcases the state’s food, products and culture for members of Congress.