By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris today unveiled a proposed $1.077 billion operating budget to run the city over the next fiscal year and a construction budget of $498.2 million.

“The good news is there will be no increase in real property tax rates this year,” Harris said.

Much of the increase in the construction budget comes from a doubling of the wastewater budget to pay for improving O‘ahu’s aging sewer system.

Harris said the city is able to pay for $63 million in pay raises and other benefits for public employees within the budget. He credited a debt restructuring for easing the budget crunch by spreading the debt repayment over a longer time period.

Harris said the city will bring in about $3 million less in real property tax revenues this year than last. And he explained that apartment and condominium owners can expect the property tax rate they pay to drop to the same rate as single-family home owners at the end of three years.

In the upcoming year that rate will drop by 28 cents under the proposal, which would amount to about a $49 break for an apartment valued at $175,000.

City Councilman Gary Okino said he was surprised that Harris was able to come up with a spending plan without raising real property tax rates. “I was kind of resigned to the fact that we’d have to raise taxes a little,” he said.