County authority sought for mass transit tax

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Gov. Linda Lingle yesterday said she will ask the Legislature to give all counties the authority to levy a tax to pay for mass transit initiatives.

LINGLE

The Legislature gave the city taxing authority for transit in the early 90s, but in 1992, the council, by a 5-4 vote, killed a proposal to increase the excise tax from 4 percent to 4.5 percent on O'ahu to help pay for a $1.7 billion light-rail system. The taxing authority has since expired. Lingle said she would look at that proposal in framing her own request.

"This island will be for the proposal that we have a consensus around now," Lingle said after her speech at the Hawaii State Bar Association convention luncheon in Waikiki. "The Neighbor Islands, it's up to them. They don't have to impose a county tax, but they can, again to be used for their own transit solutions."

At the luncheon, Lingle lobbied the legal community to support the transit issue and her education initiatives, including local school boards and more support for charter schools.

On the transit issue, she stressed that something must be done to help the traffic situation or it will get worse. She also emphasized that transit is a city issue and not a state one.

"This is going to take political maturity on the part of politicians and on the part of the public," Lingle said. "We can't have this if there's not a tax increase."

But Senate Minority Leader Fred Hemmings, R-25th (Kailua, Waimanalo, Hawai'i Kai), said the counties do not need to levy another tax, noting that they already collect property and gas taxes.

"If there's a rationale to do it, I'll certainly listen, but at this point they already have taxing authority," Hemmings said.

"The first thing the county should start doing is some honest budgeting on their own," he said.

Hemmings, who was on Lingle's task force on transportation, also said there should be a non-binding referendum to see if voters want mass transit and if they are willing to pay additional taxes to pay for it.

Honolulu officials have told lawmakers that they want the authority to levy a tax to pay for additional city costs and spread the tax burden among more people.

House Speaker Calvin Say, D-20th (St. Louis Heights, Palolo, Wilhemina Rise), said he's open to the taxing-authority proposal, but that he doesn't know what other House Democrats think about it. He said he doesn't want it to become a partisan issue.

Say also said he would like to see the financial details of the plan, adding that the concern would be whether taxpayers would have to continue to subsidize its operations.

Earlier yesterday, Lingle called for more programs to help children of inmates, and she repeated her commitment to building a correctional facility in Hawai'i.

The governor told more than 300 people at a conference focusing on children of prisoners that the community must support programs for such children, whom she said are more likely to commit crimes later.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.