Interesting collection of news coverage this week related to the Oahu light rail system boondoggle and Hawaii County property tax increases, including a sharp photo of the new Oahu light rail cars on the front page of a Honolulu newspaper.
Interesting collection of news coverage this week related to the Oahu light rail system boondoggle and Hawaii County property tax increases, including a sharp photo of the new Oahu light rail cars on the front page of a Honolulu newspaper. There have also been articles on the Hawaii County budget and tax increase along with comments from Rep. Cindy Evans regarding her views of the county budget increase in West Hawaii Today. There is a nexus between Oahu light rail and the Hawaii County budget that should be cause for concern among all Hawaii County residents.
Mayor Harry Kim points to losses of Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT) revenues as one of the factors driving the need for increases in local property taxes to help make up the difference and balance the county budget, while Evans points to collective bargaining agreements and employee salary increases as the real reason for the increases in the county budget. Evans called the $1.7 million reduction in TAT revenues to Hawaii County a “drop in the bucket” and also said, “What really caused the property tax to go up — and they don’t say it, and I don’t know why — is the collective bargaining agreement.”
What nobody is really saying, and I don’t know why, is that a badly mismanaged rapid transit project by the state in Honolulu is contributing to the need for TAT revenues (formerly dedicated to local services on the Big Island) to be re-distributed to balance the budget for this project. This redistribution comes at the expense of Big Island taxpayers who will not benefit from rapid light rail transit in Honolulu and will need to pay increased property taxes to help make up the difference.
There are always complex reasons why budgets increase or decrease yearly as a function of cost variables and revenue changes. That’s a given. However, nicely tucked away in the annual budget “black box” for this year is a conscious re-distribution of historic dedicated state revenue (the TAT) that has a strong connection to the Oahu rail project. Redirecting the TAT collected, in part, from the Big Island and redirected elsewhere, is just plain turf guarding poor state governance.
As this can gets kicked down the road, it will be local property taxpayers with the least ability to protect themselves who end up being ultimately responsible because somebody has to be. Cindy Evans, you sound more like someone interested in protecting the state bureaucracy than defending your Hawaii County residents. A $1.7 million drop in revenues may be a “drop in the bucket” for the overseers of the Oahu light rail project, but it’s not for us here at the local level. Hang in there, Mr. Kim.
David Maertens is a resident of Waimea
