Posted on: Monday, November 3, 2003
EDITORIAL
County transit tax poses tough decision
After riding into office on a no-tax-increase platform, Linda Lingle now appears ready to let this particular genie out of the bottle.
Lingle has become convinced that O'ahu needs a rail transit system that would haul suburban commuters into the urban center and Waikiki.
But such an ambitious project will come at a huge price. A figure of $2.64 billion is being tossed around, with some coming from Washington but the rest raised locally.
It should be up to the counties to raise the necessary taxes, Lingle said. But under Hawai'i's somewhat antiquated system of governance, the counties cannot do so without state permission.
Thus, said Lingle in a speech to the Hawai'i State Bar Association, she will ask the Legislature to give all counties authority to levy their own transit tax if they wish.
That presents an interesting scenario: A Republican governor averse to a tax increase proposing a major new tax to a Democratic-dominated Legislature in an election year.
Beyond politics, however, the issue here is whether the tax can be limited to paying for transit, and whether it would be a limited "drop-dead" tax or a permanent addition to the tax burden of counties that choose to impose it.
It is in the nature of governments that once a tax is imposed, it is rarely repealed even if the original purpose for the tax has been met. There are always other obligations.
Lawmakers must be crystal clear about what they are discussing when this issue comes up in the 2004 session.
It is one thing to simply step aside and let the counties impose their own sales or income tax if they so choose. It is another to design a tax program specially tailored to transit.
Lingle has said in the past she supports giving the counties their own taxing authority, an authority not tied to a particular project or issue.
Is that what we are talking about here, entering the legislative gates hidden in the Trojan Horse of a massive transportation project?
