[ OUR OPINION ]
Council’s initial OK
needed for rail systemSUPPORTERS of a light-rail transit system on Oahu should not be surprised that taxes will need to be raised at least temporarily to pay for its construction. Governor Lingle has made clear that a significant portion of the funds for the project will come from Honolulu city taxes, and the project is worthy of such an expense. The City Council needs to give its preliminary commitment to the proposal so time, effort and tax dollars will not be wasted on a doomed project.
THE ISSUE
Governor Lingle said she will ask the Legislature to allow counties to raise excise taxes to support their transportation systems.
"Nobody likes to talk about a tax increase, but I also believe it is very important to be honest with the public at the earliest possible moment," Lingle said. In the same way, it is important for the City Council to be honest with the governor at the earliest time, declaring its support for a tax increase to pay for the rail system.
The governor announced the $2.8 billion project a week ago. It consists of a 22-mile light-rail system stretching from Kapolei to Iwilei. It includes an elevated two-lane section above Nimitz Highway that will be converted to rail at some point. It is to be completed in 15 years. We would not be surprised if sometime in the distant future the system will extend to Waikiki, Manoa and perhaps Hawaii Kai or Central Oahu, much as other rail systems like those in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., seem to be constantly on the move.
As much as 80 percent of the project is expected to be financed by the federal government, leaving Hawaii a tab of up to $560 million, no small change. The governor says she will ask the Legislature to give each county the option of raising its excise taxes to help pay for its own transportation system.
That was what happened more than a decade ago, when the city administration went to some expense to plan a rail system. The Legislature gave each county the option of raising the excise tax by 0.5 percent for a decade, only to have the City Council vote 5-4 against raising the tax, effectively killing the project.
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Close vote is good sign
for future emission lidDEFEAT of a Senate bill aimed at combatting global warming is drawing attention because of the close vote of 55 to 43. The vote may reflect a growing awareness of the consequences of emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases, including harmful economic effects on Hawaii and other Pacific islands. The persistence of co-sponsor Sen. John McCain and others eventually should bring limits to greenhouse gas emissions.
THE ISSUE
The Senate has rejected by a narrow vote a bill that would have placed restrictions on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
During last week's Senate debate on the bill, Senator Akaka said Honolulu's average temperature has risen by 4.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the past century while precipitation has decreased by 20 percent. The sea level has risen six inches in Honolulu and nine inches in Hilo. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an international working group, has predicted a temperature increase of 2.5 to 10.4 degrees from 1990 to 2100 and a rise in the sea level of the Pacific by one to two feet.
"In Hawaii," Akaka said, "we have seen that El Niño events can have strong influences on our climate, causing prolonged periods of drought that hurt Hawaii's agricultural industry." El Niño destroyed at least a third of Palau's coral reefs, he added, and the dire projections of future climate change "would not only affect farmers, but perhaps even permanently destroy many coral reefs and their associated fisheries throughout the Pacific."
Last week's vote was the first time in six years that the Senate had taken up the issue. Prior to the talks resulting in the climate treaty known as the Kyoto Protocol, the Senate voted 95-0 to urge then-President Clinton to reject any treaty that significantly harmed the American economy or failed to include Third World countries. The protocol did exempt developing countries, and President Bush reversed a campaign pledge to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
Bush also removed the United States from Kyoto Protocol negotiations, and the U.S. consequently is not among 178 countries that signed the treaty in July 2001. The United States accounts for 5 percent of the world's population but 25 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. The president has called on industries to voluntarily control the growth of emissions.
The Senate bill was much more modest than the Kyoto Protocol, which calls for U.S. emission reductions from 1990 levels of 7 percent by 2010. The bill would have required companies to restrict carbon dioxide emissions so they would be no higher in 2010 than they were in 2000.
