Council may put onus of budget on Harris

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

The City Council may delete up to $15 million in user fees proposed by the city administration and leave it largely up to Mayor Jeremy Harris to trim the budget accordingly, council Budget Committee Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said yesterday.

Kobayashi will introduce a new draft of the 2003-04 budget next week in preparation for a May 22-23 Budget Committee meeting.

She said the latest version is not likely to include Harris' proposed $14 million to $15 million in fees, which the council opposes, including a refuse-collection charge, "tipping" (dumping) fee increases for refuse haulers and higher rates for city-subsidized pet sterilization.

"I think we have to cut between $14 million and $15 million from the budget," Kobayashi said.

The council will recommend $2 million or $3 million in specific cuts and ask the mayor to determine where the rest of the cuts can be made, Kobayashi said.

Harris yesterday criticized Kobayashi's call to cut the $1.178 billion budget.

"We have already cut to the bone," Harris said. "In fact, we have probably gone too far. The employees know this, and the public knows this. It's not possible to responsibly cut the budget by an additional $15 million without drastically affecting basic services."

He noted that the city budget today is the same size it was nine years ago.

"A cut of that size would mean we wouldn't be able to maintain the refuse trucks, cut grass in the parks, fill potholes, repair sidewalks and maintain the police radio system," Harris said.

Kobayashi said Harris left the council with no option with regard to the fee increases, because the revenue was used to balance the budget.

"They made it so difficult because it was either take it or leave it," she said.

Kobayashi said she is opposed to raising property taxes above the rate increase already proposed by Harris to generate an additional $23 million.

Harris said raising another $15 million via property taxes would require increasing the tax rate by an additional 3.6 percent.

Lowell Kalapa, president of the Tax Foundation of Hawai'i, said the administration waited too long to introduce a tax increase, noting that the only rate increases proposed during Harris' administration were to keep revenues the same, compensating for declining property assessments.

"I wouldn't fault Kobayashi for raising the property tax, because that's the only thing there is to do," Kalapa said.

He added, however, that budget cuts need to be made as well.

"If they don't start cutting this year, they're going to have to next year," Kalapa said.

While the council agonizes over closing one or two satellite city halls, Kalapa suggested closing all of them and partnering with banks and grocery stores to have them process city transactions.

Correction: A City Council Budget Committee meeting is scheduled for May 22-23. A previous version of this story gave an incorrect date.