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| Malia Zimmerman |
Environmental activists may have been a pawn in developers’ plans to expand housing in West Oahu.
Their support of the "legacy lands" bill (also known as the conveyance tax hike bill) and silence on the General Excise Tax hike bill, which will fund a heavy rail system from West Oahu to Honolulu, will contribute to considerably more development in Ewa.
The fact that major landowners and developers aggressively and publicly backed both the General Excise Tax hike bill (HB 1309) and the conveyance tax hike bill (HB 1308), should have given environmental activists a clue.
Lingle hinted in at least two press conferences -- where she announced the conveyance tax increase and the General Excise Tax increase bills would become law -- that developers told her housing construction on Oahu would stop if she did not approve those bills.
The governor, who made the construction of "affordable housing" a priority in her 2005 legislative package, has obviously been heavily influenced by major landowners and developers, especially in the last two years of her four-year term.
She mentioned in the conveyance tax hike press conference that Maui developers were lobbying her for the conveyance tax hike bill. That may be because some developers want the extra taxpayer money, to defer costs put on them when building "affordable housing."
Environmental activists packed the governor’s office to cheer her on as she signed the conveyance tax hike bill and applauded wildly as the governor read from her "New Beginning" election platform, which talked about preserving Hawaii’s pristine environment.
They supported the bill because a portion of the tax collected -- 25 percent or $8.75 million -- will go to "watershed protection" and another 10 percent or $3.5 million -- will be spent on land purchases by the state. (Another 35 percent or an estimated $12.5 million will go directly into the state general fund to be spent on any services and programs the state Legislature sees fit and 30 percent or $10.5 million will go to the Rental Housing Fund allowing an estimated 300 more homes to come onto the housing market).
But environmental activists may actually have contributed to expanding development on Oahu. And ironically, despite the rhetoric of "keeping Hawaii green," the governor ultimately may have been undermining the environment that activists seek to preserve, by caving into the wishes of developers.
If a politician were more politically ambitious than principled, and more focused on winning the next election that helping the taxpayers, signing the conveyance tax hike bill or the "legacy lands bill" is brilliant.
Lingle might even increase her political rating with the Sierra Club, while continuing to pull in big donations from local developers.
The same is true for the General Excise Tax hike bill. Environmental activists, with the exception of Henry Curtis from Life of the Land, were no where to be seen during hearings or protests to the tax hike. Yet it was big landowners, big business, construction trade unions and big developers pushing for the 12.5 percent hike, so they could build a heavy rail system and continue to expand development from Honolulu to West Oahu.
Developers and big landowners on the Ewa side of the island want the rail so they can build more homes and commercial projects on in West Oahu, without taking on the cost of building more roads and freeways.
Environmentalists believe the rail will put less cars on the road, but in reality, the opposite is true. There will be more people, more homes, more cars, a big silver train racing by at 75 decimals, and less open space and less green on Oahu.
In the end, everyone -- especially environmentalists and taxpayers -- lose with the passage of these tax hike bills, except the construction trade unions, big landowners and developers.
Malia Zimmerman, editor and president of Hawaii Reporter, can be reached via email at mailto:Malia@hawaiireporter.com
