Posted on: Wednesday, March 2, 2005

EDITORIAL
Budget's on the table; it's time to get serious

The biggest problem facing Mayor Mufi Hannemann as he introduces his first proposed city budget is getting folks excited about the whole thing.

For better or worse, Honolulu residents have become accustomed to budgets under former mayor Jeremy Harris that always had a serving of sizzle: million-dollar community "visioning" projects; celebrations and festivals in parks and beaches; dazzling new sports complexes.

Hannemann's budget, unveiled yesterday, is much more meat and potatoes.

It reflects well the statements and promises he made during the recent mayoral campaign. It is about potholes, sewers, landfills and public safety. This makes sense. In fact, it is precisely what the public asked for during the campaign.

The capital budget (construction projects paid off with borrowed money) is 50 percent higher than the last Harris CIP budget, up to $451 million. More than half of that will go to sewer system repairs, an expensive project that was already under way under federal supervision when Hannemann took office.

And if taxpayers think that a back-to-basics budget means less strain on their pocketbooks, think again.

Hannemann plans no reductions in property tax rates other than small adjustments for low-income elderly property owners and a small downward adjustment for agricultural lands.

Everyone else, on average, will pay more as a result of higher values.

Given the scope and cost of the tasks ahead, this is a fair request to make. This is not the year for politically popular tax-cutting.

Sewer fees will jump by 25 percent in the first year beginning next year, vehicle weight taxes will go up by 50 percent, from 2 cents a pound to 3 cents a pound. (That's $30 more a year for, say, a Camry.)

Interestingly, about half of the money Hannemann wants to raise will go not toward unmet existing obligations, but toward pay raises for unionized municipal workers that have not yet been negotiated.

Hannemann said he cranked proposed wage hikes of between 2 and 4 percent into the budget and acknowledged this now becomes the floor for negotiations. But he said it is only fair considering the work he expects from his employees and the overall health of the economy.

There's very little smoke and mirrors here. The mayor's budget targets basic issues that have too long been unaddressed. And there's no sweetener here to make the higher fees and lack of tax relief more palatable to taxpayers.

It's now up to the City Council to weigh the costs and the merits of Hannemann's budget. If there are better ideas (and there might be), the time to raise them is now.