New taxes for Pearl City, Aiea, Waipahu already being supported by your new city councilman...he has only been in office for a week. First they were saying lets increase taxes in 2022 so we can extend the rail to the University in Manoa...now they are asking us to pay more just to keep the rail solvent in its current configuration which stops at Ala Moana Mall. My prediction, the price just to get to the current configuration is going to be close to $7B because our councilmen wont bring HART under control. _____________________________ Councilmembers Scheme to Extend GE Tax Override SA: ...Ernie Martin and new Council Transportation Chairman Joey Manahan expect to be more assertive in bringing the leadership thats guiding HART before the Council to be more forthright in their representations. Martin said. Lets put it this way: The honeymoon is over. Its inevitable that were going to do rail, but I think the general publics concern is to, wherever we can, curb some of that cost. After the Council gave the project the crucial votes to advance it, we havent been as assertive with respect to rail, he said. Martin said he wants more answers from HART officials before committing to support extending the 0.5 percent Oahu surcharge on the state general excise tax beyond 2022. The surcharge is supposed to provide the bulk of the money for rails construction. He noted that Ige, when he was chairman of the state Senates Ways and Means Committee, was always icy to extending the surcharge. Caldwell applauded Martin for devoting much of his speech to his support for rail. The mayor said he will leave it to HART Chief Executive Officer Daniel Grabauskas to lead the charge to extend the surcharge. Caldwell said most major systems have a dedicated funding source that pay for construction, operations and maintenance. Any mass transit project needs to be subsidized, he said. Mass transit is about … transportation equality and social equality. A dedicated funding source would help make sure the system is maintained and operated, and segments are added up to UH, up through Kalaeloa and other areas in the future. Manahan and other Council members said they expect to see HART officials more often before the Budget and Transportation committees this year. I would imagine well have some discussions, Manahan said. Both Manahan and Councilman Brandon Elefante (my note...Brandon represents Pearl City, Aiea, Waipahu) said they support more scrutiny of HART but are also inclined to back extending the surcharge beyond 2022. Councilman Ikaika Anderson said he might support legislation putting an actual dollar amount cap on how much the surcharge can raise and require it to end when that is reached, regardless of when....
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 07:46:18 +0000
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