Honolulu Council to review mayor’s proposed $3.41B budget

The Honolulu City Council is expected today to review and consider approval of Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s proposed $3.41 billion executive operating budget and a nearly $1.1 billion capital improvement plan for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Deemed part of the city’s post-pandemic recovery, the mayor’s proposed budget bills were submitted in early March with the stated goal of funding more affordable housing, public safety and modernizing city operations.

As part of the budget, the Council also will consider the mayor’s proposed $300 one-time tax credit that the administration seeks to give to nearly 152,000 qualifying homeowners. The tax rebate would be granted to those with an active home exemption on their 2023 assessment, regardless of property value.

However, according to city Budget and Fiscal Serv­ices Director Andrew Kawano, the city’s $300 tax credit might increase.

“The Council members are going to propose adding a little more to that — $50 more — so we’re going to get up to about $350,” Kawano said Monday on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program. “So, depending on where you are in terms of the value of your property, if you’re a homeowner — let’s say at the average, a million dollars — having a $350 tax credit is equivalent to having an exemption of $100,000.”

Previously, the city said the $300 tax credit would cost about $45.6 million to implement. If approved at $350, that cost could rise to approximately $53.2 million. Tied to the budget, the city’s one-time tax credit would take effect July 1.

In a related action, the Council — during a special meeting at 9:45 a.m. — will consider findings from its own Permitted Interaction Group, or PIG, over submitting a report on its investigations on matters related to real property taxation bills.

The Council has for over a year mulled a laundry list of approximately 30 tax relief bills. A few of the latest measures include ones co-­introduced by Council Chair Tommy Waters and Council member Radiant Cordero, who presides over the Council’s budget committee. Some of those measures, which may be brought forward by the PIG subcommittee, include helping low-income kupuna; helping homeowners who were placed into a higher rate-paying real property tax class; and those renting properties long term — for 12 months or more.

Other tax measures introduced in 2022 would increase the homeowners exemption, revise tax classifications or apply a vacancy tax.

In addition to budgets and tax relief, the Council also will consider the first readings of two pieces of legislation that could offer major changes to the workings of the City Council itself.

If approved, Bill 33 and Resolution 109 — co-­introduced by Waters and Vice Chair Esther Kia‘aina on May 25 — would prohibit any outside employment or financial gain beyond an elective Council seat.

Resolution 109 — a proposed amendment to the Honolulu City Charter, effectively the city’s constitution — would formally prevent a Council member from maintaining any outside employment, having any controlling interest in a business or receive any salary, wage, allowance, stipend or profit from an outside business interest while working as a public servant.

As drafted, the proposed charter amendment is targeted toward the 2024 general election ballot and, if approved by voters, takes effect Jan. 1, 2025.

Bill 33 would, by a vote of the Council, become an ordinance and be nearly identical in its intent to Resolution 109, except this new law would begin Jan. 1, a year ahead of Resolution 109’s voter-­approved charter amendment.

Introduction of the twin legislation follows the Honolulu Salary Commission’s adoptions of pay hikes for the city’s top elected and appointed officials, including the City Council.

As adopted April 25, the annual salary of an individual Council member would rise 64.4% to $113,304, up from $68,904, while the yearly salary of the Council chair — who leads the nine-member panel — would jump to $123,288 from $76,968, a 60.2% increase.

The Salary Commission’s adopted pay hikes start July 1 unless rejected entirely or in part by a three- quarters vote — or seven votes — of the Council’s entire membership, according to the City Charter.

But two days after the Salary Commission’s decision, Council members Augie Tulba and Andria Tupola co-introduced their own resolutions — 81 and 82, respectively — that, if approved, would either wholly or partially nix the Salary Commission’s adopted salary schedules for the 2024 fiscal year as well as any new pay hikes for Council members.

To date, neither Tulba’s nor Tupola’s resolution has been scheduled to be reviewed and discussed by the Council, including at today’s meeting.

“I can’t even get five signatures to get my salary-­related resolutions on the agenda so the public can testify,” Tulba told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser via email May 31.

And for his part, Tulba previously claimed he would return any pay raise he receives as a Council member to the city’s general fund.

But three others — Waters, Kia‘aina and Council member Calvin Say — say they support the adopted Council salary increases, in part, to attract more talent to serve in local government.

On May 31, Say told this newspaper via email that this pay hike will make the Council position more viable for future candidates.

“I would not want to put new members in the situation of voting on bringing their own salaries up to a level equitable to their administrative counterparts, as we are facing now,” Say added.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday afternoon Cordero issued a written statement confirming that she also favored banning outside employment — as described in Bill 33 and Resolution 109 — but did not favor gaining higher pay as an elected city official.

“If these increases go into effect, I will return the raise,” said Cordero, who is currently not employed outside of the Council. “I signed up to be a public servant and will continue to work for my community and do not require a pay raise to do so.”

The Council’s regular meeting begins at 10 a.m. inside City Council Chambers.