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Coming soon:
Pay city taxes,
register your
car online
The services will be
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
on a portal to be
launched this summer
Star-BulletinHonolulu residents with credit cards and access to computers will be able by this summer to register cars and obtain building permits through the Internet, under a plan unveiled by Mayor Jeremy Harris.
Other types of financial transactions between the city and Oahu residents, including the payment of real property taxes, also will be available online -- provided the customer has a credit card -- within the next three years, Harris said yesterday at a news conference.
Those without access to the Internet may also take part in "e-commerce" through an interactive phone system that will be set up.
"With this, it's all on the Internet, you pay your bill here," Harris said, pointing to a computer screen. "You don't have to come in at all, you don't have to mail it in."
The contract with eGovNet.com actually calls for the Ohio-based company to build a one-stop portal site for the city.
The city's existing Web site, which includes services as diverse as geographical and zoning information to the city's revised ordinances to permit applications, will now be transferred to the new portal.
The city won't pay eGovNet.com for the service. The company, instead, would pass on a "convenience fee" to Oahu residents choosing to conduct a transaction online.
The fee has yet to be negotiated with the city, but eGov.Net officials said they typically run between 75 cents and $1.50.
The city also will get a share of the profits of advertising expected to go on the Web site.
City officials are hoping that 30 percent to 50 percent of all financial transactions eventually will be done online, noting that 60 percent of Oahu households currently have Internet access.
http://www.co.honolulu.hi.us
