Harris plan calls for
increased vehicle tax
Oahu motorists may have to pay a heavier amount of taxes on their motor vehicles.
Mayor Jeremy Harris is proposing increases in the city vehicle weight tax as a way to help pay for police pay raises.
Harris submitted a bill to the City Council that calls for the passenger vehicle weight tax to go up to 2 cents per pound, a 0.75 cent increase. His proposal also calls for the commercial vehicle weight tax to climb to 2.5 cents a pound from 2 cents.
"That's the only permutation that would bring in the money to be able to pay the bill," he said.
An arbitrator awarded police officers last month a 16 percent pay raise over four years. Harris said that means the city will have to come up with $67 million to pay for the raises and medical benefits during the period.
The city needs to cover the costs of $5.7 million for the current fiscal year and $12.9 million for next fiscal year.
The proposal means a compact car weighing about 2,500 pounds would see a jump in the tax to $50 from $31.25, or a 60 percent hike. If a person owns an SUV weighing 5,000 pounds, the person will end up paying $100.
The city currently has 606,000 registered passenger vehicles including motorcycles and 37,000 commercial vehicles.
The weight tax is paid annually along with other car registration fees and taxes.
If the City Council approves the tax hike, that would mean additional revenue of $6.5 million for the current fiscal year and $13 million next year.
Harris will use the additional tax revenue to free up general treasury funds to pay for the salary increases.
Harris has submitted a bill to the Council, which will take the measure up Wednesday for the first of three votes.
Harris said the Council must approve the increase before Jan. 1 or that option will be lost for the current year. Harris said that increasing the weight tax or the fuel tax was the only option available to generate revenue in the middle of the fiscal year.
"I had originally proposed a possible gasoline tax increase to pay for the police pay. It didn't appear that there was adequate support on the City Council to enact," Harris said.
But there's already concern about the vehicle weight tax increase.
"Yes, it will be a hardship," Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said. "The weight tax hasn't been raised since 1990. ... It's getting expensive to drive a car because of gas prices going up, but that's part of the expense, I guess."
Councilman Charles Djou maintained his opposition to raising taxes.
City spokeswoman Carol Costa said the mayor has consistently said throughout the collective-bargaining process that he believes police officers deserve a raise but the city couldn't afford it.
"The time isn't right, so (Djou) should join the mayor in opposing it (the pay raises)," Costa said.
