Storm damage price tag could climb by $20.4M
The cleanup funds could jeopardize proposed tax cuts
State and county officials are asking the Legislature for about $20.4 million more to help with the cleanup from the storms that have caused landslides, runoff, massive flooding and the swelling of streams and reservoirs that contributed to last month's dam burst on Kauai.
House lawmakers approved $14.4 million in emergency funds for storm-related cleanup last month, but the measure passed days before last week's deluge on Oahu.
During a hearing on House Bill 970 before the Senate Ways and Means Committee yesterday, officials said costs are expected to climb as agencies, cleanup crews and consultants get a better handle on exactly how much damage has occurred.
"I think everybody's sort of throwing out their best estimates at this point," said Sen. Brian Taniguchi (D, Moiliili-Manoa), the money committee's chairman.
The price tag for the cleanup also could jeopardize any tax cuts this session.
Although all tax cut measures are still alive, Taniguchi noted, "they're competing for the same money."
"We're trying to see what are the one-time type of costs and also what are the recurring costs," he added. "If we change the tax law or we increase the standard deduction, those kinds of things, we have to balance all of that. We can't spend all this stuff out."
House and Senate lawmakers will meet in conference committee, possibly by the end of next week, to consider all the different funding requests.
The cost for the storm cleanup could grow even before the measure gets out of the Senate.
As he sat in yesterday's hearing, state Land Director Peter Young said he received an e-mail from his agency's Forest Division saying the stabilization of the hillside at Maunalaha could cost an additional $3 million.
One of the most pressing needs identified by state agencies was $2.5 million for emergency work on the Kailua Reservoir.
State Agriculture Director Sandra Lee Kunimoto said the rains caused a large sinkhole in the dam structure that poses a threat to public health and safety to residents.
"Should there be another large rain ... we don't know what that impact would be," she said.
County governments also sought help.
On Kauai, where the century-old Ka Loko Dam burst March 14, killing seven people in two houses that were swept from their foundations, the damage has been "devastating and beyond the means of county budgets," Mayor Bryan Baptiste said in a letter to the Ways and Means Committee.
Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann put in a request for $5 million "as a starting point." The city had not been included on the original $14.4 million funding measure passed by the House.
"We came here because there's a strong state connection to the damage that the city now has to repair," Hannemann said, noting that two cleanup projects -- Round Top Drive and Kuahea Street in Palolo Valley -- could cost up to $10 million each.
"I don't want to just come in with a whole wish list," Hannemann said. "We're certainly willing to do our part -- the city repairs that fall under the city's kuleana -- but for Round Top and we think in Palolo, there's a case to be made there" for state assistance.
Hannemann said the city is in the process of applying for federal disaster money, too.
"But those things take time," he said. "We think that this is an emergency situation, and people want us to fix it and repair it now, and this is why we came before the Legislature."
Taniguchi included a provision in the bill to have the city repay the state if it receives federal aid.
The funding proposal is expected to pass out of the Senate and over to the House early next week, ahead of a Thursday deadline for each chamber to complete work on the other's bills.
"There's a lot of priorities," Taniguchi said. "This would be one of the big ones."
CLEANUP COSTS
A look at some of the storm-related funding requests to the Legislature:
>> $10 million, to the Department of Land and Natural Resources, for roadway and slope stabilization along Round Top Drive on Oahu. Work would include repairing roadways and drainage systems, and clearing streams of debris on both the Maunalaha Valley and Manoa Valley hillsides.
>> $5 million, to DLNR, to conduct surveys, studies and assessments of all public and private dams and reservoirs in the state to determine their current physical integrity.
>> $5 million, to the City and County of Honolulu, as partial compensation for the impact of storms on public infra-structure.
>> $2.5 million, to the Department of Agriculture, for emergency work on the Kailua Reservoir.
>> $1.2 million, to DLNR, for dredging and removal of silt accumulated at the Wailoa River entrance in Hilo.
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