The Honolulu City Council will be meeting again today, August 6th, to vote on a very critical charter amendment for our City - to vote for or against putting the rail issue on the upcoming general election ballot.
My understanding is that there are two versions:
- 1) Ver.E would create a mass transit authority (MTA); and
- 2) version F, would *implement a rail mass transit system and create a mass transit authority*
Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann has said he will approve the measure to put rail on the ballot if it is "worded" to include a transit authority (TA) which I interpret as supporting version F. This is a double-edged sword.
I find the Mayor's position alarming because the proposed TA "may" give taxing powers to a non-elective authority. This in itself is scary...another layer of government who can tax us at will.
For this reason alone, I would urge Council to vote NO on Version E and Version F of
Resolution 07-90 FD1.
I believe the public has clearly spoken, as evidenced by the nearly 50,000 signers on the Stop Rail Now petition, and if the anti-rail supporters are victorious in challenging the city clerk's ruling, then the public will be the ultimate winner because they will get to vote on the general election ballot without the creation of a mass transit authority.
I cared enough about our government to sign the petition, thus making initiative a truly democratic process for voicing the wishes of informed citizens to our elected officials.
As a senior citizen, I'm sure I'll be long gone before the proposed heavy rail is completed and even though I won't be here to ride it, should it go pass, I will be paying for it for the rest of my life. Logically, the cost doesn't justify the means. If you were presented a traffic plan that would alleviate traffic, be less costly to implement and not be a visual blight on our city, wouldn't you be in favor of that instead?
The media and the Mayor's ads advocating for a Steel on Steel rail system continually describe the steel on steel (SoS) as "light" rail, which it isn't and use 2006 dollars to come up with the $3.7 B estimated cost...very mis-leading. A more accurate description of Mayor Hanneman's train is: heavy rail costing our 500,000 + taxpayers $6 billion or more, by the time it becomes functional and a single wheel is turned.
I would like the Honolulu City Council to take the lead in seeing that we have an objective analysis with all the facts and figures on the table for the public to see/read/hear. If this was done earlier, I'd like to see it made available while the public is keenly aware of the many unanswered questions brought to light by undecided voters. The Mayor's timetable to break ground in '09, seems to me like "putting the cart before the horse."
Salome Sato is a resident of Honolulu who can be reached at mailto:salome789@gmail.com
