Bus fare for
adults may rise
to $1.50 per ride

Officials estimate that fee
increases may bring in
$2.68 million in revenues

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

The bad news: A ride on the bus may soon cost you $1.50, 50 percent more.

The good news: There will not be a charge for picking up garbage from homes.

The political news: The hostile exchange between Mayor Jeremy Harris and Council Chairman Mufi Hannemann over the budget continued into a second week.

The City Council's Budget Committee yesterday readied fee increases in coming up with revenues for the $1 billion city budget.

Council members said they're increasing bus revenues not just to pump money into city coffers, but to help pay for "value added services" recently put in place, including the new CityExpress! route.

Officials estimate the increase would bring in $2.68 million.

It would be the first increase in bus fares since July 1995, when the price went from 85 cents to $1.

The monthly adult pass would remain at $25. The increase, if approved by the Council, would take effect July 1.

Senior citizen single fares would actually be less, a decrease from 50 cents per ride to 25 cents a ride. Prices for senior passes, however, would increase. Instead of paying $20 for a two-year pass, seniors would pay $15 for a one-year pass.

Single-ride youth fares would stay the same at 50 cents, while monthly student passes would remain at $12.50.

The cost of visitor passes, designed for out-of-towners, would go from $10 for four days' use to $20 for seven days.

Ridership could slip

Cheryl Soon, city transportation director, repeated the administration's opposition to the fare increases.

Soon said a fare increase could result in a loss of up to 10 million passenger rides annually. TheBus carried 73 million passengers in 1998.

Jim Cowen, president of Oahu Transit Services, which runs TheBus, differed with Soon, saying some riders may stay away for a few months after a fare increase but eventually would return.

A public hearing on the rate increase will be held at 2 p.m. May 18.

Also on that agenda will be a doubling in motor vehicle registration fees -- from $10 to $20 -- and 50 percent increases in golf green and cart fees.

What won't be on the agenda is the mayor's proposed $1.10-a-pickup garbage fee. The Budget Committee squelched that plan.

In budget news, Hannemann criticized the mayor for having his Cabinet officials use city stationery to contact members of Harris' community-based visioning teams asking them to lobby the Council to keep $38 million in project funding for their neighborhoods.

Harris said he sees nothing wrong with alerting visioning team members that funding they fought for is in jeopardy.

Harris, Hannemann spar

The mayor criticized Hannemann for advocating changes he described as irresponsible, ill conceived and, in some instances, illegal.

Harris said many of the 157 vacant positions Hannemann wants cut are essential, while others are tied to grant money that cannot be freed to help the operating budget. He also objected to the proposed elimination of up to 14 deputy department heads, many of whom he feels are essential to city operations.

Hannemann responded that the cuts are not arbitrary but based on recommendations made by city employees and the public.

He noted that voters last November rejected an amendment to the City Charter that would have allowed the mayor to appoint second deputy directors instead of going through the civil service system.

Harris said Hannemann inappropriately calculated $6 million more in city real property tax receipts -- money the city is bound to withhold because of appeals by property owners. Hannemann said he did nothing of the sort, and said the administration historically underestimates its property tax revenues to look good later.

Some of Hannemann's budget proposals are "just straight, vindictive politics," Harris said.

Said Hannemann, "He should stop the name-calling and start recalling facts and data."