Mayor Mufi Hannemann said today in his “State of the Rail” address that he is willing to delay groundbreaking on the project.
The mayor is willing to “push back our groundbreaking schedule for at least another month to allow the appropriate federal, state and community organizations to cross the T’s and dot the I’s, to bring to fruition what House transportation and infrastructure chair Congressman Jim Oberstar has described as ‘the most exciting transportation project in the nation,’” Hannemann said in prepared remarks before today’s 1:30 p.m. address.
“Yes, it’s a compromise,” Hannemann says in his text. “But we’ve been willing to compromise along the way to keep this train moving as we did with the state’s 10 percent take on the general excise tax surcharge during its 15-year life, delaying the inclusion of the airport route while the Council struggled to find five votes to make it happen and other matters large and small.”
Hannemann delivered his "State of the Rail" address today to about 200 invited guests.

The speech will be broadcast from 6:30 to 7 p.m. on KGMB9 and KHNL. KFVE will rebroadcast the speech on Friday from 9:30 to 10 p.m.

The city will pay $10,000 for 30 minutes of the speech to be broadcast tonight on local TV.

Lowell Kalapa, director of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii, said the $10,000 expenditure was a waste of taxpayer money. However, the city has said its information campaign is part of a federally required public involvement effort.