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+--- Thread: We pay for Oahu Rail (/showthread.php?tid=18692)
RE: We pay for Oahu Rail - David M - 09-06-2017
Apparently more fair if we have our own
"The bill also gives neighbor island counties the authority to raise their own GET by one-half percent if they do it by March 31. If approved, the new tax would go into effect Jan. 1, 2019.
The GET surcharge can be used only for operating or capital costs for public transportation systems, including public roadways or highways, public buses, trains, ferries, pedestrian paths or sidewalks or bicycle paths, according to the bill.
The optional GET increase for the neighbor islands was approved by legislators even as they justified the TAT increase by saying it is preferable to the Honolulu GET because it is less regressive and doesn’t hit the poor the hardest.
Joy San Buenaventura, D-Puna, voted yes on SB 4, although she stated she also had reservations. She says an Oahu GET still hits neighbor islanders because so many goods stop on Oahu first.
“Oahu, having more legislators, is going to pass a rail bill, so a more equitable rail bill was better than the ones the counties want us to pass,” she said in a letter to the editor. “The current 0.5 percent GE on ‘Oahu is more of a neighbor island tax than the TAT.”
http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/local-news/somebody-tell-me-how-it-s-right-big-island-officials-trying-make-sense-rail-bill-s
Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com
RE: We pay for Oahu Rail - kalakoa - 09-06-2017
The GET surcharge can be used only for operating or capital costs for public transportation systems
Isn't that what our new Fuel Tax increase is already for?
do it by March 31. ... would go into effect Jan. 1, 2019.
Ah. They're hoping we will have forgotten by then -- and the long schedule leaves enough room for a vehicle weight tax increase in late 2017. Brilliant!
RE: We pay for Oahu Rail - kalakoa - 09-06-2017
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honolulu_Rail_Transit
2006 $3B
2008 $4B
2010 $5.5B ("but could cost $7.2B" per Lingle)
2012 $5.12B operating by 1/31/2020. construction starts.
2016 $6.9B (Hanabusa shares March 1 budget estimates)
2016 $8.1B (FTA estimate) operating by 12/2024
2017 $8.165B operating by 12/2025, estimated 36% complete
Oahu GET surcharge: until 2030.
State TAT surcharge: until 2030.
Critics have called for a "forensic audit" to figure out the cost overruns.
My guess? HART will be finished just in time to be made obsolete by self-driving electric cars.
RE: We pay for Oahu Rail - Chunkster - 10-05-2017
As predicted, State Rep. Cindy Evans has been stripped of her majority leader position for not toeing the party line on the Oahu rail bailout. Choosing to follow your constituents' interests and/or your conscience is apparently unacceptable to the people running the state legislature. Are they that scared of honesty? Of course they are. Our local rep, Joy Sanbuenaventure has shown no such courage and continues to do the good old boys and girls bidding, presumably hoping to become one herself.
Here is the story, but it already appears to be behind the Star-Advertiser's pay wall:
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/10/05/hawaii-news/state-house-majority-leader-ousted-over-vote-against-rail-bailout/
RE: We pay for Oahu Rail - kalakoa - 10-05-2017
behind the Star-Advertiser's pay wall
Also covered in HTH, with no paywall.
http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/local-news/evans-resigns-state-house-majority-leader-nakashima-named-vice-speaker-wake-rail
Note use of the euphemism "resignation".
"I really listened to my community and my island," Evans said. "After giving consideration to everyone, I felt that was the right vote for the community and the island."
Classic: you can "do right by your people", or you can "keep your job".
RE: We pay for Oahu Rail - Kapoho Joe - 10-05-2017
quote:
Originally posted by kalakoa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honolulu_Rail_Transit
My guess? HART will be finished just in time to be made obsolete by self-driving electric cars.
Self-driving electric cars are expensive. HART will be so the homeless can commute from their panhandling gigs back to their tents.
RE: We pay for Oahu Rail - HereOnThePrimalEdge - 10-05-2017
Self-driving electric cars are expensive.
A number of major car companies have announced the dates by which they will only make electric cars, ranging from 2019-2023. Self-driving cars will be introduced during that time frame and soon after. Then we'll say, self-driving electric cars are... cars.
The Donner Party really wasn't that great of a party, was it?
RE: We pay for Oahu Rail - Kapoho Joe - 10-05-2017
I will be excited when the rental companies get self-driving cars!
RE: We pay for Oahu Rail - randomq - 10-05-2017
Cheap self-driving ubers will eventually replace all forms of public transit. Car ownership will become optional, even in rural areas. HART will be an obsolete eyesore before it's complete.
RE: We pay for Oahu Rail - kalakoa - 10-05-2017
Car ownership will become optional
Sure. Just as soon as there's an Uber4X4.