By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer
Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris’ proposed budget calls for modest increases in areas he feels are priorities without proposing expensive new initiatives.
| Highlights of the mayor’s budget
Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris yesterday proposed a city operating budget of $1.077 billion and a construction budget of $498.2 million for the next fiscal year. Some of the highlights:
 $201 million in wastewater projects to improve the city’s sewer system, including an expansion of the largest sewage treatment plant at Sand Island and a plan to use an additional level of treatment, an ultraviolet process, to disinfect the wastewater before it is discharged through an ocean outfall.
$24.7 million in transpor-tation/transit/bus improvements. Harris said that would include building 200 new bus shelters, more transit centers and buying more buses.
$20.5 million in new police and fire facilities, including a new East Honolulu police substation near the park-and-ride across from the Hawai‘i Kai Costco store.
$5 million for building a Wai‘anae emergency exit road that would connect existing smaller streets mauka of Farrington Highway to give Leeward Coast residents an alternate route when the main road is blocked for some reason. Harris estimates the total cost of the emergency exit road at $15 million.
$7 million to renovate ball fields and other park facilities.
$800,000 to buy a second Honolulu Fire Department rescue helicopter. |
Harris yesterday announced details of his $1.077 billion operating budget to run the city over the next fiscal year without raising taxes or fees.
"The good news is there will be no increase in real property tax rates this year," Harris said.
Budget proposals from Harris in past years that called for ambitious new parks and projects at a time when money was tight for routine maintenance because of declining tax revenues had been criticized. But this budget adds 34 city groundskeepers to help spruce up the parks, 23 more police officers and an expansion of the lifeguard program with 10 new positions and three more response teams.
The mayor also proposed a $498.2 million construction budget, much of the money dedicated to paying for improvements to O‘ahu’s aging sewer system. The operating budget is increasing $63 million or 6.2 percent over the current budget.
The city is able to pay for $63 million in pay raises and other benefits for public employees within the budget, Harris said, crediting a debt restructuring for easing the budget crunch by spreading repayment over a longer time.
City Councilman Duke Bainum praised the move to restructure debt while the interest rates are favorable. "It’s a golden opportunity," he said.
Bainum, who has closely examined city budgets for more than six years, said he found Harris’ spending plan to be clear, complete and well-crafted. "It’s a smart budget," he said. "My initial impression is that this is a smoke-and-mirror-free budget as compared to some of the others."
Harris balanced the budget without an across-the-board increase in city bus fares, a proposal that is moving toward approval in the City Council. "I will not veto," Harris said of the council’s proposal, even though he is concerned about an expected decline in riders with any increase in fares.
Harris said he will ask the council to approve a $4 million supplemental budget request in April to help pay for a projected $5.2 million shortfall in the current year’s budget for running the city bus system. He said the rest of the money can be made up in savings within the transportation budget.
The city will bring in about $3 million less than last year in real property tax revenues, Harris said. And 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 Harris’ budget proposal, which would amount to about a $49 break for an apartment valued at $175,000. The current apartment rate is $4.49 per $1,000 value, which would drop to $4.21 in the next year, $3.93 the following year and end up at the single-family home rate of $3.65 per $1,000 in value by the fiscal year beginning in mid-2004.
High-rise owners have complained for years that it is unfair to for them to pay higher property taxes than owners of single-family homes.
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.
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