Fuel Tax Revenue (FTR) - Council takes action

[Rob Tucker]

The county council formed an had hoc committee to make recommendations to council on how
to implement the Fuel Tax Revenue proposal from FoPF (www.fopf.org) and championed by Council Chairman Dominic Yagong.

I heard from Councilmember Brittany Smart that the first ad hoc meeting will be today.

It is likely that there will be public meetings on this subject this summer in Puna and Kau.

For some background:

For more than three years Friends of Puna’s Future has made improving our  subdivision roads a primary focus.  
Many of you attended our Wine, Cheese,  & FTR event in
HPP in 2010 to kick off the effort.
 
The FTR proposal (Fuel Tax Revenue made available to our subdivisions)
got a warm reception in our 2010 county council with passage of
Resolution 321.10 as put forth by Councilman Dominic Yagong.
 
Last year our effort was diverted to the state house, purposefully I
believe, by Lincoln Ashida.  HB 1626 and HB 2118 have
been languishing in the Transportation Committee under Chair Joe
Souki. A week or so ago one of our members met with Rep. Souki to find
out what the holdup is.  To a large degree everyone in Honolulu seems
to be passing the buck.
 
And where is our Mayor on this important Puna issue?   Absent and
largely silent.
 
I recently met with Council Chairman Dominic Yagong on how to bring
FTR forward.  Here is Dominic’s plan.....
 
Dominic believes it may be possible to implement FTR with or without
changes to state statutes.  He believes that the key is to have a
County of Hawaii Grant in Aid program and policy in place, regardless
of the status of HB 1626.

So three years of effort is moving forward this summer.