Posted on: Thursday, May 22, 2003

EDITORIAL
City budget remains a study in ambiguity

With the deadline for the adoption of a new 2003-2004 budget for Honolulu fast approaching, it is clear that the mayor and the council are still fundamentally at odds on how to make that budget work.

That's not good news for Honolulu residents and taxpayers, who face the prospect of uncertainty in city services and confusion over taxes and fees.

The council is scheduled to vote on the budget June 4, so there is still time for the Harris administration and the council to come to an acceptable compromise. But not much.

Hearings today and tomorrow at City Hall will give the public and interested agencies some opportunity to speak to the new spending plan. But because the council and the administration are so far apart on basic issues it will be difficult for those who testify to make much sense.

Fundamentally, the budget as it now sits is out of balance. The Harris administration proposed a broad list of fee increases and property tax hikes to make the budget work. The council felt the administration had pushed the council into a corner by proposing a plan that could only be balanced if those politically unpopular, taxes and fees were imposed.

So it is proposing doing away with at least five fee hikes that were worth some $13 million in revenue. It also calls for some $5 million in cuts to departmental operating budgets.

That would appear to leave some $8 million in further cuts or revenue still to be found.

Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi proposed throwing in the proceeds from the sale of the city's "Block J" downtown parking lot to cover some of the shortfall. But the Harris administration says that income has already been included in this year's budget and carried forward to next year. In other words, that income was already counted.

These are the kinds of ambiguities that the council and the administration should work out before the public has its last chance to comment.