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Bus question:
Who will pay?

Now that a strike is averted,
the next order of business
is to find the money

By Leila Fujimori
Star-Bulletin

Joe Tease doesn't own a car. He, his wife and their 2-year-old child rely on the city buses for transportation.

So Tease, one of Honolulu's 240,000 daily bus passengers, was relieved to learn that a city bus strike had been averted late Saturday.

The proposed agreement between management and the union representing TheBus employees is expected to cost $12 million more than the previous contract, which expired June 30.

City Council Chairman Jon Yoshimura said that if the new bus contract calls for a budget increase, it should come from targeted bus fare increases, not the city general fund and property taxes.

Yoshimura said he would consider increasing fare box collections, but not bus passes.

He would favor raising the cost of the four-day tourist pass, but would want to protect groups such as students, senior citizens and the disabled.

Bus rider Tease said he would support raising the $1 bus fare to help cover increased costs. But the Honolulu resident doesn't want the city to touch the $25 price of a monthly bus pass.

"When you start increasing the bus pass for local citizens, it's going to be a problem and people would stand up and say something," Tease said.

Jennifer Hayashi, a Kaimuki High School student, said she wouldn't ride the bus if the city raised the 50-cent student bus fare. "I'd rather just catch a ride or walk."

Heidi Ribeiro, a 19-year-old Kapiolani Community College student, lives in a dormitory on the University of Hawaii-Manoa campus and said many students there rely on the bus because they aren't from Honolulu.

Ribeiro pays the $1 bus fare and would oppose any increase in bus fares.

"College students don't get a break. Why don't they have a college student rate?" she asked.

Councilman Duke Bainum, who heads the Council's Transportation Committee, said he hopes the city does not need to raise bus fares.

Months before last week's strike threat, Bainum had proposed a resolution to establish a policy for running the transit system.

"The transit system is vital to Hawaii and is at a crossroads," Bainum said.

With new bus routes added in the last several months and the pay increase proposed for workers, "it's a good time to reassess everything," Bainum said.

Mayor Jeremy Harris said yesterday at the Democrats' breakfast meeting that since a strike settlement was announced, he "hadn't had the chance to determine what the cost of the package will mean."

But he planned to discuss the issue with the City Council today.

The new package will cost $12 million over three years, said Perry Confalone, attorney for Oahu Transit Services Inc., which runs TheBus.

The Hawaii Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996, which represent 1,300 bus drivers, dispatchers, maintenance and clerical workers, reached a tentative agreement with Oahu Transit on Saturday.

The new tentative agreement increases the company's pension contribution to $3 an hour from $1.77 over three years and includes a 50 cents-an-hour pay increase each year during the next three years.

Entry-level pay now stands at $13.76 an hour, climbing to $19.67 an hour after five years.

The number of hours worked varies, according to the route.