The Honolulu City Council voted Dec. 22, 2006, to build a multi-billion "fixed guideway system" from the west side of Oahu to the University of Hawaii. The unions, developers, bankers and big landowners are driving the campaign for a rail transit along this 28-mile route with seven of nine council members on their side. Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann is one of the project's biggest cheerleaders.
The state Legislature in 2005 gave the city the authority to raise the state's 4 percent General Excise Tax to pay for the project. Gov. Linda Lingle also gave the rail her blessing on July 11, 2005, refusing to veto the bill that authorized the Council to raise the General Excise tax. The bill is now on the books as Act 247. By doing so, the governor broke her 2002 pledge to voters never to increase taxes. Oahu’s General Excise Tax was increased on Jan. 1, 2007, by an additional 12.5 percent to pay for rail.
Congressman Neil Abercrombie, who personally testifies at the Council hearings, is promising $1 billion in federal funds even though no state outside New York has ever received such an amount from the federal government for a rail project. He claims because newly elected Hawaii Congresswoman Mazie Hirono is on the transit authorization committee and the Democrats now rule the House of Representatives, that Honolulu has the federal connections to get the funds. Never mind that Hirono is as green as the money it will take to fund this.
Council Member Charles Djou, one of two council members against the project because of its extraordinary cost, says a $10 million Alternatives Analysis prepared by a city consultant shows the fixed guideway will cost between $4.6 billion and $6.4 billion. Cliff Slater, head of HonoluluTraffic.com and one of Hawaii's leading transportation experts, says $4.6 billion is just the start because of operating losses, maintenance costs and bond interest.
With the city's operating budget at $1.2 billion a year, and the tax hike on Oahu expected to bring in just $200 million a year, it will take years and likely another major tax hike to pay for the 28-mile system. The rail would not be completed for at least 14 years.
Poverty advocates and small business owners are concerned about the tax, noting it is the largest in Hawaii's history and will impact all goods and services sold on Oahu. Hawaii already is one of the highest taxed states in the nation and has one of the highest costs of living.
When built in 2020, the rail isn't expected to relieve traffic congestion, according to the city's own report, but rather create a redevelopment plan around rail using "smart growth." The train will reach 60-feet-high in several places and cause the condemnation of more than 100 private businesses and homes in Honolulu.
Those expected to profit -- large landowners with property around the rail, construction union workers who will help build the largest public works project in the history of the state, and politicians who will get campaign funds for supporting the project.
Opponents say the fix has been in from the beginning because no other alternatives than rail -- including a toll road over the freeway much like the one in Tampa that would be built without taxpayers funds -- were truly considered by the majority of the Council or the mayor, who are determined to get their "holy rail."
But Slater says the fight over whether the rail project will actually be built will continue for at least 3 more years.
“The rail has at least three years to go before a shovel hits the dirt. Scoping has yet to be done, The Draft Environmental Impact Statement has to be drafted, public hearings held, and comments taken and addressed. The FTA has to approve the city's projections in the DEIS, assumedly there will be an SDEIS and hearings, then RFPs will be issued, etc, etc, etc, all leading up to an FTA Record of Decision (ROD).”
Slater, who helped defeat two similar projects in 1992 and 2004, notes these were cancelled after they received approval from the City Council.
“At the end of the multi-year Bus Rapid Transit process in 2004, the FTA withdrew their “Record of Decision” (ROD) and that was the end of that folly. The 1992 effort for a rail project ended six months after the Final EIS had been issued (on a vote of 5 to 4 by the Honolulu City Council).”
Opponents also note that there is a mayorial election in two years and several city council members will be up for re-election. If any of these dynamics change, it could help end the fight over the rail quicker.
Reach Malia Zimmmerman, editor and president of Hawaii Reporter, via email at mailto:Malia@hawaiireporter.com
