Two Honolulu City Council members want the city administration to work with the state to collect a reported $81 million in uncollected assessed traffic fines owed to the State of Hawaii.
Council member Calvin Say and Council Chair Tommy Waters have introduced Resolution 211 urging the city and state to collaborate on collecting unpaid fines for speeding tickets
and other traffic violations that are owed to Hawaii’s
taxpayers.
But Say and Waters’ requested collection effort comes with a catch: that delinquent fines collected from Oahu’s traffic violators be retained and deposited into Honolulu’s over $2.3 billion general fund.
The collection of unpaid traffic fines, according to their resolution, would help the city “provide additional funding for the enforcement of state and city traffic laws” and bolster the work of the Honolulu Police Department’s patrol division, which issues about 400,000 traffic citations annually, the Sept. 5 resolution states.
“We are not abiding by our state laws and traffic laws that we have on the books,” Say told the Council’s Committee on Budget on Tuesday. “The general public is just flaunting it, by these types of violations that are not being enforced.”
Say acknowledged it would not be easy to implement such a collection. And he noted the state does not provide compensation to HPD, which has a total operating budget of $357 million for the 2024 fiscal year that began July 1.
“At this point this is the only measure I see this year in regards to how we can generate excess revenues on top of real property tax,” Say told the committee.
He called on fellow Council members to share their own revenue-generating ideas since he says the city will also experience a decline in real property tax revenues as sales of residential real estate on Oahu slow down. Nearly 42.4% of Honolulu’s overall $3.91 billion operating budget comprises real property tax revenues.
Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s administration — to which Resolution 211 was directed — suggests the matter of collecting unpaid traffic fines will require state-level negotiations.
“The administration does support the resolution,” city Managing Director Michael Formby told the budget committee. “We’re a little concerned about how to do this, and would like to work with members of the Legislature first.”
Due to the disaster on Maui, Formby cautioned, the city will seek to avoid the potential for “unfunded mandates” — in this case, state regulations which might be imposed upon the city, without accompanying funds to cover the cost of compliance.
“And so I don’t necessarily want an offer to help collect and then find out we’re going to get a bill that says we collect and turn everything over to the state,” Formby said. “So I would like to talk to the legislators, the governor’s office, and see if we can come to an agreement that if we
can offer the state a more efficient way to collect and return, for all or a share of uncollected, delinquent fines, that we be allowed to do that.”
Say agreed, noting the devastation of Lahaina might hamper the city’s ability to collect and direct owed moneys to the city’s general fund, which pays for police, fire and other city services on Oahu.
“(The state) is going to look at all of the counties in finding resources to shore up their losses in the general excise tax and the transient accommodations tax at the state level,” Say added.
Others, including Vice Chair Esther Kia‘aina, remained supportive but apprehensive about the ultimate success of the
resolution.
She added the “onus” should not be placed solely on the city, but instead should involve a state legislator to introduce the measure during 2024’s session of the state Legislature, which begins in January.
In written testimony about the resolution, Oahu resident Natalie Iwasa noted a change in the law would be required to allow any of the state’s unpaid traffic fines to go to city coffers.
“Please keep in mind
that the current policy of depositing traffic fines in state funds helps reduce an apparent conflict of interest, i.e., police are not as likely to be influenced to
issue tickets when fines do not directly benefit the city,” she said.
The budget committee sent the resolution out for Council adoption.
As far as the state is
concerned, in most cases, the state Judiciary employs a private collection agency — New York-based Pioneer Credit Recovery Inc. — to recover delinquent traffic fines.
According to the Judiciary’s website, unpaid traffic fines are referred only to the collection agency.
After referral, payment must be made to the collection agency, Pioneer Credit Recover; the courts will not accept payment. In addition, those who do pay fines are required to pay the collection agency’s fee of about 21% of the outstanding
fine balance owed to the state.
