Mayors deliver legislative message

LIHU‘E — Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. appeared before a joint hearing of the House Finance and Senate Ways and Means Committee yesterday and presented the county’s legislative package for 2009. 

“Today, I represent the people of the County of Kaua‘i with a request for partnership to benefit our shared constituencies both now and in the long term,” Carvalho said in his testimony. “It is apparent that this will be a very difficult budgetary year, so, with that in mind, we have attempted to keep our requests minimal and focused on areas of urgent need.”

Carvalho presented two requests for capital projects funding which were approved by the Kaua‘i County Council in November — $6 million for the expansion and upgrade of the Waimea wastewater treatment plant and $950,000 for repair and upgrade of the emergency bypass road in Wailua. Both requests represent 50 percent of the total funding required for the projects, a county news release states.

Hawai‘i’s four county mayors told the state they are experiencing hard times too and they want to retain the share of tourist hotel taxes they now receive.

Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann noted that many of the services tourists use are provided by local governments.

The TAT, as the transient tax is known in the Capitol, “continues to help us balance our budget,” Hannemann told a joint hearing of the House Finance and the Senate Ways and Means committees.

Counties provide services or perform other actions for tourists and the tourism industry that are difficult to quantify, he said.

About $229 million was collected by the transient tax in fiscal year 2007, which ended last June. About 45 percent of those revenues by law are transferred to local governments: Honolulu gets the bulk of them, with Maui, the Big Island and Kauai picking up the remainder, in that order.

As they have in the past, only to be repeatedly rebuffed, the counties also are asking the state to give them revenue from traffic tickets written by local police that do not go to court.

The bypass work was essential in assuring access from the east and north shores to the rest of Kaua‘i, Carvalho said.

“The scope of the improvements covered by this request includes the planning and implementation process for reconstruction of some sections of the road base, general resurfacing for a single lane, one-way traffic road and safety enhancements such as guardrails, signage and delineators,” he said in his testimony.

The extensive rain and flooding Dec. 13-15 on Kaua‘i have rendered the bypass virtually impassable until numerous temporary repairs are made, he added.

In his testimony, the mayor pointed out that in addition to seeking state help, the county is taking numerous steps to help itself, including: reducing departmental travel budgets by 50 percent; suspending the filling of vacant positions except for those that impact public health and safety; directing department heads to implement budget cuts of 10 percent across the board for the next fiscal year; and aggressively pursuing new grant funds and federal economic stimulus dollars. 

Carvalho joined with Mayors Hanneman, Billy Kenoi of the  Big Island and Charmaine Tavares of Maui in presenting a joint legislative package as the Hawai‘i Council of Mayors. 

The mayors met privately yesterday with House and Senate leadership to discuss these priorities and other issues of common concern, a county news release states.

Later this week, Carvalho will travel to Washington, D.C., where he, along with the other three Hawai‘i mayors, will attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the presidential inauguration.

During their trip, the mayors will meet with Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka to discuss the status of the federal economic stimulus packages. Kaua‘i’s stimulus request totals just over $100 million. 

“We don’t want to miss any opportunity to infuse dollars into our economy at this time when businesses are really struggling,” Carvalho said.

• The Associated Press contributed to this report.