Leaders should repeal aquarium tax credits
The tax credits aimed at financing a proposed aquarium at Ko Olina were a bad bet for the state from the start, and now state lawmakers have a chance at a do-over.
They should take it.
The fate of the credits — a total of $75 million, authorized for the aquarium project in 2003 — has been a long-simmering point of contention among lawmakers.
It surfaced again this week in a report by Advertiser business writer Andrew Gomes, who found that, although the aquarium project itself has been shelved, $3.45 million of those credits have been claimed by developer Jeff Stone, principally for initial planning and design work.
That revelation should serve as a nudge for legislators, who since January 2007 have been unable to agree on how the money should be spent. Now $3.45 million of taxpayer money has been spent for no public purpose.
Several bills have waxed and waned during the 2007 and 2008 sessions, but there are two remaining options:
The problem with HB 1277 is that community priorities may have shifted in the past year. A decision on how to spend $71.5 million should not be made in conference committee but after a more current round of public hearings.
The better course would be to repeal the credits.
Tax credits can be useful incentives to encourage projects that benefit the community. But in this specific case, the credits set a poor precedent. The build-out of the resort was not dependent on the development of an aquarium, so the sacrifice of tax revenues for an aquarium did not have a clear payoff to the public.
And it's not good public policy to target a single, private development for a tax break.
Everybody agrees that the Leeward Coast could use another economic stimulus package. It's a shame that lawmakers couldn't come to terms on that issue to this point. They should try again to do so after full, open discussion.
