Lingle, council talk transit-tax collection
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Gov. Linda Lingle and a key aide met yesterday with City Council members over various ways to collect a transit tax that would help finance a long-debated mass transit system for Honolulu.
City Council Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz — a transit supporter — said he met with Lingle, who told him she's open to working out a solution that the state and city will both support.
"She looked me straight in the eye and said she supports transit and wants to find a solution," Dela Cruz said.
He said he was encouraged and believes that the governor wants to work with all parties. "The meeting was very pleasant, very positive," Dela Cruz said.
Lingle could not be reached to comment yesterday.
Last week, Lingle and Ho-nolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann traded barbs over the collection of the transit tax, each blaming the other for the latest hurdle.
The city is counting on the increase in the general excise tax on O'ahu — from 4 percent to 4.5 percent effective Jan. 1, 2007 — to provide about $150 million a year for a mass-transit system in Honolulu.
Though the state law authorizing the increase in the excise tax stipulated that it would be collected by the state, Lingle has said the Legislature failed to set aside money to pay a vendor to handle the extra work.
She said Hannemann should have gotten the council to support shifting $5 million to the state to guarantee that its vendor would be paid for collecting the additional tax.
Hannemann said Lingle should have asked the state Legislature to set aside the money because the state law makes it clearly a state responsibility to collect the tax.
Any hurdle to the project worries transit supporters, who have struggled for decades to win support for a transit system.
City Councilman Charles Djou, who had voted against the transit tax surcharge, said he met with Lingle's senior policy adviser Linda Smith yesterday about the issue.
"I think the governor's trying to work something out," Djou said. "I think they're exploring a variety of things."
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
