Vehicle fees may go up to cover police raises

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

O'ahu motorists could soon be paying about $18 to $30 more each year to register their vehicles under a plan to help cover recently awarded pay raises for Honolulu police officers.

Bill 69, which needs to be approved by the City Council, would raise the city's vehicle weight tax for passenger vehicles 62 percent — to 2 cents a pound from the current 1.25 cents a pound. The commercial vehicle tax rate would increase to 2.5 cents a pound from the current 2 cents. The council will discuss the measure on Wednesday.

The bill, as proposed by Mayor Jeremy Harris, would be implemented on Jan. 1 and net an estimated $6.5 million through June 30, 2004, the end of the fiscal year; and $13 million the following year.

"That money would be able to generate enough revenues to be able to pay for the pay raises for the remainder of this year and next year," Harris said yesterday.

The raises announced last week by an arbitration panel come out to about a 4 percent increase in each of the four years of the contract, as well as other increases, coming to roughly $67 million in all. The raises will cost taxpayers an additional $5.8 million this fiscal year, $12.7 million the second year, $21.2 million the third year and $27.7 million the fourth year, according to the administration's estimates.

State statutes spell out strict guidelines on how weight tax revenues can be spent and technically, police raises would not qualify. Harris said he therefore intends to introduce a supplemental budget bill that would allow the new weight tax revenues to be used to augment the bus transportation fund, the account which pays for TheBus and HandiVan operations. General fund revenues now earmarked for the transit fund would then go toward paying the police raises.

There are roughly 656,000 registered vehicles on the island, about 606,000 of them general, noncommercial passenger vehicles, the mayor said. Another 37,000 are commercial vehicles and the rest are trailers and other vehicles.

Harris had originally floated the idea of increasing the gasoline tax charged to customers at the pump but said yesterday he rejected it when he realized there was no support from the council. Raising property taxes are out, he said, because they are set in the spring as part of the annual city budget.

"There are really only two alternatives at this stage of the budget cycle in the city fiscal year, two taxes we have the ability to control — vehicle weight taxes and gasoline taxes," he said.

Waiting until 2004 to do something is unwise, he said.

"Basically, we need to bring in this additional revenue and I think it would be a mistake to try to push it off until next year and then have taxpayers next year have to reach back and pay retroactive pay raises all the way to July 2003," he said. "The bill is due this year."

Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said she supports the idea of raising the weight tax to help meet the salary increases. However, she criticized the administration for not, as other mayors had, anticipating the pay increases in the spring when the city budget was being put together. "The other counties didn't have to scramble like we did," she said.

Firefighter raises were already reached through arbitration before the budget was passed and the administration should have anticipated that police raises would be next, Kobayashi said.

Kobayashi also said she is concerned because the $13 million expected from the weight tax increases won't be enough to cover the third or fourth years of the police raises. "Now what do we do after next year?" she said. "We're going to have to tighten our belts and continue to look for revenue to pay for the increases in the ensuing years."

Councilman Charles Djou called raising the vehicle weight tax "a lousy idea" and pointed out that one of the key reasons California voters ousted Gov. Gray Davis was anger over his decision to triple the state's vehicle weight tax. Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger has vowed to repeal the increase.

Djou said the administration needs to make the decision to trim back on operations. "We've got to cut spending, there's no question about it," he said. "The public will have to understand there has to be some serious, dramatic cuts from the budget. Layoffs are not the policy I wish to pursue but it's not something we can keep off the table and not discuss."

Carol Costa, Harris' spokeswoman, said the mayor had stated consistently during the state and counties' negotiations with the State Organization of Hawai'i Police Officers that the city had no money for raises. "The City Council must now decide whether to pay those raises," Costa said. "The bill raising the vehicle weight tax was sent down as a measure they might consider if they make that decision."

John Solomon, 30, a cook from Kalihi, said instead of raising taxes, the city should eliminate skate parks and the Brunch on the Beach programs.

"We pay enough taxes already," said Solomon, who drives a Dodge Dakota pickup truck. "How much more taxes they like?"

Others, however, supported the weight tax increase.

"In a way, it's good to help the police," said Jayson Abellana, 28, a Kane'ohe termite fumigation laborer who drives a Honda Civic. "And I can afford that." Abellana said he hopes the extra money can "put more cops on the road."

Lynn Agno, a 23-year-old 'Ewa Beach resident who works for the state judiciary, also said she supports the increase. "That's not that much ... they protect us," she said of what she figures it will cost her to register her 2002 Honda Accord.

She also hopes the raises will mean better service. "My car got broken into one time and it took (police) 30 minutes to get there," Agno said.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.