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Home My WebLink AboutCOM 0184.025 1996-1998 FINANCIAL FACTS RELATING TO PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN HAWAII 1. (Source) "STATE OF HAWAII February 1997 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) Amendment for Fiscal Years 1997 & 1998 (See cover pane and pages 1 and 2, et. al. as follows.) 1 Hour video-"U. S. Gov't. Funding for Public Transportation" of Public Information Meeting. (Videotaped & Produced by Maihaa Rayne, Coordinator & Publicity - Kona '1'raneportation Task Force) Meeting & Funding discussion: Monday, March 17th, 8:30-10:00 a. m. Open to the public-DOH Conference Room, Haleki'i St., Kealakekua. Kona Cable 10 'Tuesday, March 18 at 8:00 p. m. RECEIVED ' Saturday, March at 9:00 p. m. Ttrne____________________ gy.____.._....w~, pate.-__-__ ___t._..f...___ Cable 2 Hilo ~.,y. County Coundl y Wednesday, March 19 at 11:00 p. m. '1'hursday, March 20 at :i:00 p. m. 'Tuesday, March 25 at 7:00 p. m. "The Hawaii Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) ...for the amended Fiscal Years 1997 and 1998 STIP which integrates and ref)ects the proposed transportation facilities and program development for the State of Hawaii, the City and County of Honolulu, and the Counties of Hawaii, Maui ar.d Kauai. "Phis STIP delineates funding category and the federal and local share required fnr each project." STATEWIDE - FHWA (Page No. 1) Commuter Vanpool Program FY 1997 FY 1998 Statewide: State (XSTEA/STP FLEXIBLE) 8500,000 80 Transitional Vanpool Program Total 81,500,000 82,000,000 ISTEA FUND CATEGORY(STP FLEXIBLE)(F'ed.81,200,000>(F'ed.S1,600,000) Statewide: State (Local 8300,000>(Lccal 5400,000) QUESTION 1. Will the Island of Hawaii receive a lair share of the 8500,000.00 Commuter Vanpool Procram funds allocated "Statewide" for 1997? Who receives the funding and when? QUESTION 2. How much of the Transitional Vanpool Procram funds of 81 500.000.00 in 1997: and 82 000.000.00 for 1998: will Hawaii Island receive? Who receives this money and when? e~ ,aS I~ . iV n. _ _.~'p_._-- Presented- C 1 HMI'. 'Tn:,_:_._-., h ~ ~.~t. tr l a ,MAR 1 7 1997 Page 2. STATEWIDE- FTA (Page No. 2) 'franeportation Assistance for FY 1997 FY 1998 Elderly and Disabled Total: 5366,000 5390,000 Statewide: State (Fed. 5295,000) (Fed. 5312, 000) h'TA-SECTION 5310 (was Sect.16b2) (Local 571,000) (Local 578,000) 9UESTION 3. How much of the above funds will Hawaii Island receive? Who receives these funds? Coordinated Services? Are there any restrictions to qualifying? How are these funds allocated and when? STATEWIDE - FTA Rural Transportation FY 1997 FY 1998 Assistance Program (RTAP) Total: 558,000 558,000 Statewide: State (Federal share-S58,000) (Fed.S58,000) h'TA-SECTION 5311 (was Sect. 18) 9UESTION 4. How are these funds allocated? To whom? When? lloes the Public have any input into how decisions are made about where and how Public 'Pransportation funds are spent? 9UESTION 5. How much of the above total "Statewide" funding does Hawaii County receive for Public '1'ransnortation? Who decides which island will receive these funds? How ie this decision made? How can the public give input and be heard and their needs addressed? ANSWER: According to statements made by a representative of the State Planning Department at the Public Information Meeting, the entire Island of Hawaii usually only receives a total of 5120,000 a veer for all Public 1'ransportationl Also, the other impression communicated at this meeting was that the County of Hawaii had indicated that "they had all they could handle here with things as they were" and "everything was working fine", so they had not asked far more, and we were told that "even if the Federal and State Government came up with 80% of the funding, the County or "Local" had to come up with the additional 20~ (watch the video of the meeting) BUESTION 6. Why does Public Transportation seem to be such a problem on this island? Page (See the facts and figures for Dahu and the C 8 C of Honolulu and their funding of Public ~'ransportation ae a criority! pages 13 & 14.) Hawaii Island has more land area and at least 10% of Oahu's copulation, so why do the people here receive only about 1% of the total yearly funds for Public Transportation received by OAHU: C 8 C OF HONOLULU - FTA TOTAL (see pages 13 & 14 attached) FY 1997 FY 1998 Oahu: C 8 C of Honolulu 5124,925.000.00 5135.665,000.00 COUNTY OF HAWAII - FHWA (Page 18) FY 1996 (That year only) Transfer to Transit Total: 51,221,000.00 Hawaii: l;ounty of Hawaii (Federal 5977, 000.00)(Local 5244, 000.N0> QUESTION 7. Where and how was this money spent, end by whom? ANSWER: According to the State Transportation Planner at the meeting (watch video), the 5(77,000.00 was spent to purchase 7 new HELE-ON "NEOPLAN" HANDICAPPED ACCESSSIBLE BUSES - while the 5244,000.00 "Local" share was spent on operations. These monies were received by the Mass Transit Agency far "that year only" due to some left over highway funds from 1995 that had to be allocated and spent by 1996! QUESTION 8. Why were no funds "Transferred to Transit" for 1997 or 1998? Ie it a "matter of Public record" to see accounting of the actual expenditure of funds? (Yea, the Mass Transit Agency and County should be able to provide a complete accounting, in detail, of income and expenditure of public funds.) I guess no one thought of it or believed it was enough of a priority to ask or insist that funds be reallocated or re- prioritized from the County level. The State says the request must come from the Maes Transit Agency and the County of Hawaii, and they hadn't received any requests for funding for transit or any indication that 1t was a priority to the people on this Island! They knew nothing about the "Request for Proposal to Develop a Coordinated Public Transportation System, or any request for funding at the State level! (See video & minutes of the January KTTF Meeting, when we were told that Mike Cochran, of the Mass Transit Agency of Hawaii, had requested an additional S10.000.00 from the State llOT, and expected the funds would be made available and the kFP advertised for bid by mid-February 1597!) FACTS: In 1996, 51,000,000.00 fSl million) was spent on the Island of Hawaii dust for planning the "Saddle Road Extension" from Mamalahoa Highway to the Queen Kaahumanu Highway! _ Page 4. For 1998, 35,300,000.00 (55.3 Million) hoe been allocated simply for a "Saddle Road Pohakuloa Training Area Bypass" (see page 16) 9UESTION 9. Were the People of Hawaii ever asked what was important or of priority to them in funding? At this "Public Information Meeting", (announced in the Legal Notices section of the newspaper), the few people who showed up were given a 34 page chart of facts and figures and told that since we probably wouldn't be able to look through 1t all that evening, we had until March 6th to respond. Rushing to get the video of the meeting on Public Access 'Celevieion, the first air date was March 2nd. FACT:"Shoulder improvements for bicycle route" Keahole to Kewaihae received 52,230,000.00 in 1996 (double the amount received for the "special allocation of highway funds for one year only for Public Transportation to purchase 7 much needed new HELE-ON Handicapped Accessible Public Transit buses!) FACT: for 1997. 350.000.00 has been allocated for DESIGN and an additional 3529.000.00 for CONSTRUCTION of "Queen Kaahumanu Highway Improvements at the Entrance to Koloko-Honokohau National Historic Park" (ISTEA FUND CATEGORY:"Discretionary"> (PAGE 17>. "THIS REPRESENTS ABOUT FUUR TIMES UUR USUAL TOTAL YEARLY EXPENDITURE FOR PUBLIC 1'RANSYORTA7'ION !•'OR THE WHOLE 1SLAND OF HAWAII! QUESTION 8. Who makes these decisions and why? ANSWER: COUNTY OF HAWAII - FTA FY 1996 FY 1997 FY 1998 Rural Transportation Program 51,532,000 3185,000 3629,000 Hawall:County of Hawaii (This is the (F'ed.S123,000>(Fed.5129,000) "Transfer to Transit" for 1996 ONLY(Loca1S62,000)(Local 5500,000) COMMENTS: EVEN THOUGH THE AMOUNT OF RURAL TRANSPORTATION PROGRAM FUNDS LOOKED GOOD FOR 1996, THIS WAS MADE UP LARGELY OF THE "TRANSFER TO TRANSIT" SHOWN EARLIER, AND NOT ADDITIONAL FUNDS, 1997 LOOKS DISMAL IN COMPARISON, AND EVEN THOUGH THE PROJECTION FOR 1998 APPEARS BETTER, IT LARGELY DEPENDS UPON THE "LOCAL" SECTOR COMING UP WITH THE MAJORITY OF THE FUNDS, WHICH IT HAS FAILED TO DO IN THE PAST. NOTE: EXAMINATION OF THE COUNTY COUNCIL PROPOSED BUDGET FOR THE UPCOMING FINANCIAL YEAR (PUBLIC HEARING AT YANG HALL MARCH 17TH, 7 P. M.) SHOWS NO ALLOCATION FOR PUBLIC TRANSIT!