Lawmakers on both sides of Punchbowl Street are weighing a handful of nonbinding resolutions that would call for piecemeal reforms to the Honolulu rail project.

The state Senate’s Transportation Committee and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee looked at a combined total of five rail-related resolutions during hearings Tuesday, and advanced three of them.

The approved measures urged that the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation seek more cost-cutting measures (Senate Concurrent Resolution 63), develop a detailed plan to fund rail operations and maintenance (SCR 143) and incorporate bus rapid transit links from several parts of the island into the future rail line (SCR 65).

Senate members deferred SCR 112, which would have urged an audit of the state Department of Taxation to discover why rail’s GET revenues are down despite an overall increase in state GET collections. Sen. Will Espero (D, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point), who heads the Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee, said the group made that decision based on the Department of Taxation’s written testimony.

Tax officials stated that the law would prevent them from providing the auditor access to taxpayer information without that taxpayer’s approval.

Those officials also blamed the discrepancy between lagging rail revenues and growing GET collections on "timing differences," or a delay between when taxpayers fill out a return and when their payment is actually deposited.

HART officials have already said that a processing delay doesn’t fully explain why the rail project hasn’t received more cash. They still aren’t satisfied as to why the rail project’s GET revenues are lagging approximately $40 million behind what they had been projected to be at this point.

The Senate Transportation Committee also deferred a resolution urging the state auditor to help look into the status and progress of rail’s completion. In her written testimony, acting state Auditor Jan Yamane said the measure would create a conflict when she subsequently audited "any and all matters related to rail."

Meanwhile at Honolulu Hale, officials from both HART and the Caldwell administration said they support the idea of televising HART’s full board and committee meetings.

The City Council Executive Matters and Legislative Affairs Committee pushed out Resolution 15-80, asking HART officials to work with ‘Olelo or other publicly accessible media to have their meetings broadcast either live or via replay.

HART Board Chairman Ivan Lui-Kwan said he supports the concept and will put the matter up for discussion on the agency’s April 22 agenda.

"From my perspective, anything that advances and enhances transparency, understanding (and) awareness of our project or the issues related to our project, I’m in favor of," Lui-Kwan said.

He estimated that since the HART board first began meeting on July 1, 2011, it has held about 55 full board meetings and more than 100 committee meetings.

State lawmakers said the flurry of resolutions are important — even if rail officials aren’t legally obligated to follow them.

"They’re nonbinding, but it does show that we in the Legislature are just as concerned as the public is regarding the cost of rail, the overruns and other issues that are impacting rail, and those of us who support rail," Espero said Tuesday. "We need to let HART know that we’re watching, we want information and we’re going to stay engaged."

The Legislature continues to consider two bills that would extend the rail tax.