Kim wants gas tax hike
to cover road repairs
HILO >> Big Island Mayor Harry Kim is proposing to raise gasoline taxes by 6 cents a gallon to pay for road repairs, bringing the total county tax to 14.8 cents.
The proposal is part of the mayor's $247 million operating budget for 2004-05 submitted this week to the County Council.
Council Chairman Jimmy Arakaki said: "I don't like new taxes.
"I'm not happy every time I see gas prices. Every week, (residents) see gas prices and think, 'I'm getting gouged,'" he said.
The Hawaii County portion of gasoline taxes is currently the lowest in the state, 8.8 cents a gallon, compared with 16.5 cents in Honolulu, 13 cents on Kauai and 18 cents on Maui.
Hawaii County is the only one where county employees do road repairs instead of contractors, said Public Works chief Bruce McClure. It is cheaper doing it "in house," he said.
Kim wants to increase road crews to 188 employees from 136. Arakaki said he has never seen a proposal to add so many employees to the county payroll at one time. "We need them," said McClure.
The increase would let the county continue repairing its 904 miles of roads on a 20-year cycle, McClure said. The increase would also fund more buses in the two high-growth areas, Puna and West Hawaii.
Arakaki said Kim's budgets have grown rapidly. The present $247 million proposal compares with $179 million three years ago in the last year of Kim's predecessor, Stephen Yamashiro. Kim's staff has complained Yamashiro let repairs slide.
Kim has proposed other tax increases, and the Council approved them. In 2002 the mayor and Council raised property taxes up to 25 percent, although homeowners still paid less than they did before tax cuts in the 1990s.
The mayor and Council also raised the minimum tax on some properties to $100 a year from $25. A review is under way that would raise taxes on marginally agricultural "gentleman farms."
Arakaki said he would rather see more tax-generating private projects. "I'm not so much pro-development as pro-revenue," he said.