You're likely to pay more for parking
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
The City Council voted 7-2 yesterday to advance a plan that would raise parking rates on city streets and in municipal lots throughout the island after a public hearing that saw no one testify either for or against it.
The council will take a final vote on the bill June 4, but it appears after yesterday's tally that the measure likely will pass.
The opposing votes came from council members Charles Djou and Mike Gabbard.
Bill 41 basically increases rates at nearly all city stalls by 50 percent. Parking meters and municipal lots that now cost motorists $1 an hour, typically those in downtown Honolulu, would increase to $1.50 per hour. Those stalls that now cost 50 cents an hour, typically those outside of downtown, would jump to 75 cents an hour.
City officials estimate the increase would bring in about $2.4 million in additional money.
Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said the added revenue is necessary to help balance the city's $1.2 billion operating budget.
Kobayashi said in searching for additional revenue sources, her staff learned that parking rates have not risen in more than a decade. Increasing rates also may encourage motorists to leave their vehicles at home and use the city's bus system, she said.
Djou said he would rather cut services than increase city fees or taxes. The council should not be approving raises for more than 3,000 white-collar city workers, a proposal that will cost about $6.2 million, he said.
"We're here because we have a government we cannot afford," he said. "We're here because we're trying to fund pay raises we cannot afford."
The Budget Committee is slated to hash out the final details of its budget proposal during what is expected to be a lengthy session today.
Also yesterday, the council voted 7-2 to allow $1.5 million in federal block grants to be used by a non-profit organization to buy Poamoho Camp, the home of 300 current and former Del Monte plantation workers and their families.
The residents were told in January that Del Monte was not renewing its lease for the Wahiawa property and that they would be evicted after June 30. Camp supporters say most of the residents do not earn enough to find housing outside the plantation.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142, which has represented the pineapple plantation workers, separately is negotiating with Del Monte and Galbraith Estate, the landowner, to have an undisclosed party take over the lease on the property on a temporary basis, according to ILWU international representative Tracy Takano.
The $1.5 million would be part of a long-term solution to buy the land outright through an entity affiliated with the ILWU known as the Waipahu Jack Hall Memorial Housing Corp. That group would then work to turn over ownership of the homes to the families, Takano said.
The Legislature approved a bill asking the Department of Land and Natural Resources to exchange Galbraith Estate's 2,200 acres in Wahiawa, including Poamoho, for unidentified state agricultural lands elsewhere, but the DLNR opposed the measure and Gov. Linda Lingle has yet to sign it, Takano said.
The administration of Mayor Jeremy Harris is opposing the reprogramming of $5.3 million in Home Investment Partnerships Program Development Block Grant money originally tapped for a transitional residential center for the homeless.
Council members said federal housing officials have determined that the procedural process for that project is flawed. But deputy budget director Chris Diebling said city attorneys believe only the mayor can initiate a reprogramming of federal housing dollars.
Besides Poamoho, the council wants to reprogram $3.1 million toward the Hawai'i Housing Development Corp.'s Tusitala Vista, an affordable rental project for seniors, and $714,000 to the Steadfast Housing Development Corp. for its project to provide shelter to those with mental illnesses.
Djou and Councilman Gary Okino opposed the measure.
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
