Mayor Mufi Hannemann makes a compelling case when he needles the state to give back the nearly $15 million a year it's skimming from the O'ahu transit tax so the city can add a rail spur to Honolulu International Airport.

The 0.5 percent excise tax was assessed on Honolulu taxpayers for the specific purpose of paying for O'ahu rail transit.

But the Legislature is siphoning 10 percent off the top — estimated at more than $40 million in the first three years — to cover the state's cost of collecting the tax, which will actually amount to only $700,000 next year.

The rest goes to the general fund to be used as slush money at the Legislature's discretion — quite possibly for projects in Neighbor Island counties that don't pay the tax.

This gross misappropriation will result in a windfall to the state likely to exceed $300 million over the 20-year life of the transit tax — just about enough to cover the $350 million Hannemann says it would cost for a 2.1 mile spur between Ala Moana Center and the airport.

The airport stop was dropped when the City Council voted to run the transit line through Salt Lake instead.

If a rail system is going to be built, this is a particularly appropriate use of the money, since the airport is a state facility and the state has high interest in extending service there for visitors, local travelers and airport workers.

But legislators consider it their birthright to cockroach money from the counties and won't give back their transit cut easily. If Hannemann wants it, he'll have to fight for it by repeatedly holding lawmakers' pilferage to the light of public scrutiny.

Maui Sen. J. Kalani English, chairman of the Transportation Committee, credits Hannemann for "thinking outside the box," but says the mayor agreed to pay the state its vigorish when lawmakers authorized the O'ahu transit tax and has to live with the deal.

It's a sad day when legislators consider it outside-the-box thinking to expect tax collections to be spent on the purpose for which the tax was levied.

And it's becoming increasingly outrageous that thuggish lawmakers have to be paid off in one way or another before any business can be transacted in this state.

The perverse thinking at the Capitol is further illustrated when English accuses Hannemann of coming to the Legislature to ask for 'more state money' for the transit system; the state hasn't put a penny into the $4 billion rail system, which will be financed by the O'ahu excise tax and federal funds.

English might have an argument if Hannemann goes after money from the state's special airport fund, but the excise tax proceeds that the mayor wants back is "state money" only because the state improperly lifted it from the city.

The legislative siphoning that cynically adds 10 percent to the cost of what's already the most expensive public works project in Hawai'i's history contributes to widespread public fears that rail transit will become the biggest financial sinkhole in local history.

Expect this to be an issue if the citizens initiative drive to stop rail gets on the general election ballot in November.

Legislative resistance to returning the state's slice of the Honolulu transit tax has been led by by Neighbor Islanders such English and Big Island Sen. Lorraine Inouye, who don't have to face the wrath of O'ahu voters and whose constituents get to share in the bounty even though they don't pay the tax.

When are O'ahu legislators going to stand up for their constituents and end this banditry?


David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. His columns are archived at www.volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog at volcanicash.honadvblogs.com.

David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. His columns are archived at www.volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.