Updated at 1:59 p.m., Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Proposed $1M study targets transit's effect on City Hall
Advertiser Staff
With plans to build a major new mass transit system well under way, city officials want to commission an independent $1 million study of the potential impact to other city operations.The study would focus on the transit plan's financial effects on all other city agencies and departments, said deputy city budget director Patrick Kubota.
It would include a litigation risk analysis and response plan, and would examine how additional money for the transit project could be temporarily secured while the city is awaiting federal support, he said.
The city is seeking a $14 million federal appropriation soon, with a longer-term goal of securing a $1 billion grant from the Federal Transit Administration.
Some City Council members said such issues should have been studied in a previous analysis of potential routes for the $5 billion transit system, which is to eventually stretch from West Kapolei to Manoa and Waikiki.
"It's very frightening," said councilmember Ann Kobayashi. "We're already in this project and there's no turning back."
Council chairwoman Barbara Marshall said she is very concerned that the transit project would require borrowing that limits the city's ability to sell bonds to finance other needs.
Mayor Mufi Hannemann hopes to break ground on the project by late 2009. His administration proposed the new study as part of a city spending plan for the fiscal year that begins in July. It would require council approval.
