Posted on: Tuesday, November 9, 2004

DRIVE TIME

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer

Mayor-elect Mufi Hannemann said all during the campaign that he supports development of a light-rail transit system for O'ahu.

Now comes the tough part: Who is going to pay for it?

Given Honolulu's long history of developing transit plans and then backing away when it comes time to actually put up money, it's likely to take an almost iron will from Hannemann and his allies in the city and state government to get a rail plan beyond the planning stage.

It can be done, however. And as witness to that, you don't have to go any further than last week's elections across the country, where voters in a record number of jurisdictions approved spending plans for new transit initiatives.

In all, voters approved 22 transit initiatives with a total worth of more than $40 billion, according to the American Public Transportation Association. Officials with the group say having a strong, popular leader backing the project is often a key to winning approval.

Here's a sampling of what happened last week:

• In the Denver area, voters approved a proposal to sell $3.5 billion in municipal bonds to expand a regional transit system. The area will increase the state sales tax rate to 1 percent from 0.6 percent to pay for the improvements.

• In Phoenix, voters approved extending a sales tax to generate $8.5 billion to improve highways, expand bus service and increase light rail. Fifty-eight percent voted for the measure.

• In Charleston, S.C., voters passed a half-cent sales tax to keep the city's transit system from running out of money.

• In the San Francisco area, voters approved at least three county sales tax measures and one property tax increase to finance new transit improvements.

In Honolulu, though, it's a long way from being certain that voters will go along someday with tax increases to pay for transit improvements. Nearly everyone agrees that traffic congestion is one of the major problems facing the new Hannemann administration, but that doesn't mean we'll agree to pay for fixing it.

Traditionally, much of the financing for rapid transit in America comes from federal money. In Hawai'i, though, that seems a long shot, at best; federal officials are disappointed (that's the kind way of saying it) with Honolulu, where they've tried for decades to help pay for transit, only to have it blow up in their face time and again.

With hundreds of other municipalities seeking federal money, it's a safe bet that Honolulu is going to be at end of a very long waiting list for new transit money — so much so that outgoing Mayor Jeremy Harris now says the only way for the city to go is alone, financing its own project entirely.

At some point, that means Honolulu voters probably will be asked, as many of their counterparts across the nation were asked last Tuesday, if they are really willing to pay for a rail transit system that Harris, Hannemann and so many others say is necessary.

It's anybody guess whether the voters will go along.

Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.