Posted on: Thursday, March 3, 2005

Federal transit bill advances to House

By Dennis Camire
Advertiser Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — A proposed Honolulu rail transit system is part of the new six-year, $284 billion federal highway and mass transit bill a House committee approved yesterday.

The bill, which now goes to the full House for a vote as early as next week, also included $32 million for other transportation projects in Hawai'i.

While the bill does not include any specific spending amount for the rail project, it means federal matching money would be authorized if it won state and local approval.

Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, said the federal authorization was an important first step in the long-running debate about building the transit system and paying for it.

"O'ahu is one of the most congested urban areas in the nation," he said. "We need relief, and rail transit is the key to solving the problem."

Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawai'i, said the bill, if it wins congressional approval this year, assures federal contributions for the rail project for at least the next six years.

"Most of the action to resolve whether we will or won't have some form of rapid transit in the City and County of Honolulu still does lay at the city and county level so those are where the decisions have to be," he said.

The highway and transit bill has been stalled since last year over disputes among the House, Senate and White House about the overall amount to be spent and how it would be divvied up.

But President Bush already has agreed to the funding level in this year's bill, and the Senate is expected to follow suit.

Contentious issues remain, such as how much states should get in highway aid for the gasoline taxes they send to Washington.

Currently, states are supposed to get back at least 90.5 cents in so-called "formula aid" for every dollar they contribute in gasoline taxes to the federal Highway Trust Fund. But states that contribute more in taxes than they receive want as much as 95 cents on the dollar.

That could mean less for Hawai'i's road and transit system programs since the state currently receives $2.16 in aid for every $1 collected in federal fuel taxes.

Case said the distribution of gas taxes was still the biggest issue he was watching in the highway and mass transit bill.

"So far so good, but clearly the donor states (those contributing more than they receive in aid) are making a more concerted push really than in the last couple of years," Case said.

But after nearly two years of wrangling, lawmakers were optimistic that a compromise on the highway and transit bill was close.

"It seems to me that not all, but most, of the differences that existed last year have been solved," Case said. "I sense that people are working in a much more cooperative fashion and that the hard lines taken last year by some have softened."