EDITORIAL
City is shortsighted in raiding sewer fund

Times are bad, and tax revenues are in short supply for county governments, too. In dipping into special funds to balance the city's operating budget, the Harris administration is stealing a page from what Gov. Ben Cayetano and the state Legislature have been doing for seven years.

The wisdom of this tactic varies from fund to fund. The state is embroiled in controversy over diverting the Hawai'i Hurricane Relief Fund. But a move that strikes us as dangerously imprudent is Harris' proposal to transfer $60 million out of the sewer fund this year, having taken $41 million last year.

It's clear that there will be a next hurricane hitting the state sooner or later, and if it hits disastrously enough, insurance companies will bolt and homeowners will need a supplemental hurricane fund. But how much needs to be in that fund and whether other solutions might be possible remain open questions.

But there's no question that $1 billion in sewer work must be done on O'ahu in the next 20 years. Money pirated from the sewer fund means the work must be paid for either by further hiking sewer fees or issuing more government bonds, which increases the city's already burdensome long-term debt.

There is an argument that these transfers are simply a way of "repaying" the general fund for money spent on sewers before there was a special sewer assessment and the sewer fund. That argument has some appeal, but the plain fact is that when the general fund paid for sewer work, it was because at that time that was an obligation of the general fund. The money in the sewer fund was collected to maintain and improve the sewer system and should be used for that purpose.

So, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being wisest and most necessary, we'd say tapping the hurricane fund is about an 8, and the sewer fund about a 3, if that.