Gas settlement likely to go to highway fund
| • | State, oil companies settle anti-trust lawsuit |
| • | Skepticism reigns at pump over price-fixing settlement |
By Susan Hooper
Advertiser Staff Writer
Any money from yesterday's settlement of Hawai'i's antitrust suit alleging gasoline price fixing by several major oil companies here would likely go into the state highway fund rather than toward rebates for Hawai'i drivers.
The amount of the settlement has not been disclosed, and the state's plan for the money still must receive federal court approval.
But state attorney general Earl Anzai said yesterday that putting the money into the highway fund would be the fairest way to repay the driving public, because it would help curtail increases in the gasoline tax, which would benefit drivers in the future.
The highway fund is used to pay for repairs and improvements to Hawai'i's state roads. It is supported by money from the state gasoline tax.
"If we can limit the growth in the gas tax, (drivers) benefit by almost the same proportion that they would have paid in the first place," Anzai said. He said consumer rebates would be "an administrative nightmare," because it would be difficult to determine how much each driver was owed.
The state also wants add to the highway fund the $6 million left from the $15 million antitrust settlement in 1999 with Tesoro Hawaii Corp., its parent company and BHP Hawaii Inc.
About $9 million of that settlement money has been used to pay legal fees, Anzai said.
