2017-08-11 Mayor Kim's testimony re Special Session 2017 - Rail Tax Surcharge

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Harry Kim Mayor Count. . of T..iginnf ` C Wil Okabe Managing Director Barbara J. Kossow Deputy Managing Director @fmle of tip Atavor 25 Aupuni Street, Suite 2603 • Hilo, Hawai`i 96720 • (808) 961-8211 • Fax (808) 961-6553 KONA: 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Hwy., Bldg. C • Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i 96740 (808) 323-4444 • Fax (808) 323 1140 Committee on Transportation and Energy Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs Committee on Ways and Means Committee on Transportation Committee on Finance August 11, 2017 Special Session 2017 — Rail Tax Surcharge Dear Senator Lorraine Inouye, Senator Clarence Nishihara, Senator Donovan Dela Cruz, Representative Henry Aquino, Representative Sylvia Luke, and Committee members: We understand that the upcoming Special Session will be considering many different proposals on how to help the City and County of Honolulu address the funding of their rail system. While we understand that this is not an easy decision, we want to ensure that the Legislature makes their decisions based on fairness. We understand that some of the options being considered include increasing GET and TAT for the entire state with all of the proceeds going to rail. These increased taxes would be collected on all islands, even though the rail system is only located on Oahu. That does not seem fair to tax those that don't even have access to the rail system. We do support the extension of the GET surcharge for Oahu. That seems to be the fairest method to ensure that those most likely to benefit from the system will pay for the system. In addition, the TAT cap for the counties was not restored to $103 million as in previous years. This reduced our TAT revenue by $1.86 million. This is more than the entire budget for our Civil Defense department. Without these funds, a significant increase in real property taxes for our citizens was necessary. The same citizens that you also represent. We cannot burden our citizens any more for something that will not benefit them. Taxing all for the benefit of one is not fair. All islands could see an increase in the TAT and GET but only one will benefit. We all will be seeing less TAT in our budgets. We respectfully request that you do whatever you can to provide the counties with their fair share of TAT and find another way to fund the rail system, such as continuing the additional GET for Oahu. County of Hawai`i is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer.