Council: Tax hike won’t cure congestion

LIHUE — Raising the general excise tax isn’t the silver bullet that will clear traffic congestion, said councilman Gary Hooser.

“In the community, traffic is on the forefront of everybody’s mind,” he said Wednesday during a committee meeting. “I don’t want to mislead the public to have them think that we raise this and they’ll be out of Kapaa traffic. This isn’t going to get rid of traffic.”

Council Chairman Mel Rapozo shared the concern.

“The people I talk to on the street think these moneys are going to alleviate congestion and it’s not,” Rapozo said. “This is not going to relieve congestion.”

But raising the general excise tax, or GET, by half of a percent will allow for bridge and road repair, as well as work on connector roads. That could all help with the problem, according to Michael Moule, county engineer.

The GET surcharge, if passed, would generate around $250 million over 10 years. It could begin bringing in revenues in April 2018.

Of that money, 75 percent or about $191 million, would go toward repair and replacement of roads, bridges, and maintenance vehicles and equipment. The rest, 25 percent or about $64 million, would go toward the bus system.

The money raised through the surcharge wouldn’t be able to be used for any improvements on Kuhio Highway, though, which is the epicenter of the island’s congestion and is within the state’s jurisdiction.

“To raise people’s taxes, and raise $250 million and have no measurable impact on the level of service is something that I certainly cannot support and don’t believe that the community will support it,” Hooser said.

Larry Dill, county public works director, said his department has also heard the word on the street, where traffic congestion is a huge concern, but he said he’s heard some buzz about road conditions, too.

“There’s also a big concern about the condition of the roads,” Dill said. “Certainly, condition of the roads and traffic congestion are both significant issues.”

Kauai’s bus system is slated to get 25 percent of the potential GET revenue, and Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura said that will at least help alleviate some traffic congestion.

She even asked a 17-year-old bus rider, Kevin Medina, to make a statement about his bus usage to illustrate the need for a better bus system — not only to alleviate traffic congestion, but also to make the system itself more streamline.

Medina said he and his friends typically catch the bus four or five times a day.

“From what she (Yukimura) was telling me with the Kauai Bus, that’s more people on the bus and less people in cars,” Medina said. “She’s also trying to get more schedules and routes and from my point of view, that’d be great.”

Hooser and Yukimura both said they were working on alternate bills that would address the same projects with different funding sources, like money that could be released from the state through the transient accommodation tax, or TAT.

The state capped the counties’ portion of the TAT four years ago, and Kauai County has been losing $13 million annually since then.

Rapozo said he thinks the state is hoping that the counties will all enact the GET surcharge in order to make up for the money they’re losing in the TAT funds.

“That money is generated by the visitors and we should get a bigger portion of it. The reason I talk about the TAT is because that’s where it’s at,” Rapozo said.

Councilmembers Kipukai Kuili’i and Mason Chock said that they think there could be other sources of revenue that could be targeted as well.

“It’s a combination of multiple things that we need to consider,” Chock said. “Everything from lobbying the state to looking at other creative (methods.).”

The County Council has until July 1 to enact an ordinance that would increase the tax from Jan. 1, 2018 to Dec. 31, 2027.

The matter was deferred to the March 2 committee meeting so council members can prepare bills addressing different funding sources for consideration.