Now that the City Council has approved a tax increase to finance a mass-transit system, Mayor Mufi Hannemann promises a specific transit plan will be developed before the first nickel is collected in 2007.

Opponents criticized passage of the bill before such a plan, including the route and cost of the transit system, had been detailed.

On Wednesday, the council voted to add a surcharge to the state's 4 percent general excise tax — making it 4.5 percent. That amounts to a 12.5 percent increase in the tax, which is added to most consumer and business activity.

Hannemann said afterward that his administration will move quickly with the next steps and not end up with a tax collected but awaiting a way to spend it.

"We'll have a plan. I don't see it as an issue," he said. The tax increase is to begin Jan. 1, 2007, and be repealed Dec. 31, 2022.

The tax is expected to cost each household on O'ahu between $245 and $450 each year for the 15 years it is in effect. Analysts predict that will raise about $150 million each year.

Hannemann had asked the state Legislature for authorization to levy an increase double that. But he said he is confident the amount given will allow the first phase of the project to get under way. The city is seeking federal funding and may get private investors as well.

The next steps for Hannemann are signing the bill into law — expected the week of Aug. 22 — and awarding a $10 million consulting contract to one of two engineering companies that responded to the city's request for professional services. He said the city has not named which company that will be because that would be premature.

Hannemann said he hopes some of the studies done before the council's rejection of a transit plan in 1992 might be useful or relevant. But he said the law requires new studies and extensive community outreach to explore the possible choices and find out what people think of them.

The city's chief transportation planner, Toru Hamayasu, said such a process usually takes two to three years but can be completed by the end of next year with the help of background from the previous studies.

For the public, that means a fast-track process that will give a better idea of the choices before year's end, Hamayasu said.

"Some early screening of optional alignments will be done by the engineers in the next few months and the public involvement will begin in October to November," Hamayasu said.