The logjam at the Honolulu City Council over technology for a mass transit project has not gone unnoticed at the state Capitol.

State Sen. Sam Slom, R-8th (Kähala, Hawai’i Kai), who opposed the general-excise tax surcharge to help finance the transit project, took a moment on the Senate floor yesterday to describe the latest developments at Honolulu Hale as a “trainwreck.”

“I’m just wondering, Madame President, since we’re suspending rules and waiving things, we had a good bill earlier in the session that said if the city could not get its act together that the tax would be suspended and, as a matter of fact, would be refunded to the taxpayer,” Slom said.

“Madame President, I beseech you, I plead with you, is there some way that we can suspend the rules or waive them or gut-and-replace or do something to energize this very good bill that the Senate has so that we can help out the city administration that now is threatening to pull the plug, but not the taxes, on the people of this state?”

State Sen. Shan Tsutsui, D-4th (Kahului), the bill’s sponsor, immediately stood up. “Madame President,” he said, “I second that request.”

Slom and Tsutsui were kidding — well, sort of — but the sentiment behind the bill was genuine.

The bill would have suspended the tax surcharge if the city stalled over technology for the project. While it would not have refunded the money collected so far to taxpayers — as Slom said — it would have potentially taken the money back for use on O’ahu road projects.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann told senators in early February that the bill was unnecessary and that an expert panel would soon be recommending a technology. Senators hesitated on moving the bill because it might have sent the wrong message to federal transit officials about the local financing commitment for the project.

But Hannemann also made this statement:

“I said last week and I’ll repeat it again. The fact that I collaborated with the majority of the City Council on the resolution to create the panel. The fact that the City Council selected two of the four members. The fact that we are asking professionals in the field to make a recommendation based on their knowledge, their expertise, of the various modes of technology.

“I just can’t fathom the fact that the City Council would go for an alternative at that point. So, therefore, I say, if the City Council should choose to go with another selection, you should consider very seriously rescinding the general-excise tax (surcharge).

“I don’t want to say that. And certainly, I know, it sounds (like) a very bold statement. But, in my mind, it is ludicrous to go down this far — and I know it was a hotly debated issue before this body about the whole aspect of the general excise tax — I appreciate the deliberations that went into it.

“We have come so far, and to now at the eleventh hour, make that kind of decision, to me, those people who would want that to happen need to be held accountable, they need to face the heat from the people who have elected us into office.”

Slom also had an interesting exchange on transit Thursday night with Wayne Yoshioka, the city’s transportation director, at a Wai’alae-Kähala Neighborhood Board meeting.

Although accounts vary, things got tense, and Yoshioka essentially called Slom out for a debate on the merits of the transit project “anytime, anywhere.”

Slom said Yoshioka told him Hannemann would debate him. Bill Brennan, the mayor’s spokesman, said Yoshioka told Slom that “we” — meaning a representative from the city — would debate the senator.

“I said `bring it on,’” Slom said last night. “Anytime, anywhere.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 19th, 2008 at 1:00 am and is filed under Capitol Notebook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.