Traffic speeds
onto agenda

The Legislature will look
into forming a transit authority
or raising excise taxes

State lawmakers are hearing the exasperated cries of Honolulu commuters sitting on clogged freeways.

When the 23rd state Legislature meets for the first time Wednesday, traffic will be on everyone's agenda.

And things could get contentious. At least one legislator wants lawmakers to reconsider the much-hated traffic cameras.

But when it comes to traffic, the issue appears not to be whether Honolulu needs mass transit, but how it will be funded.

There are two main ideas: either let the Honolulu City Council raise the excise tax, or form a transit authority, as is done in many mainland cities, with the power to raise funds.

"Transportation is a huge issue. We are going to be talking about either a transit authority or the Council," Sen. President Robert Bunda (D, Wahiawa-Pupukea) said, noting there appears to be some broad agreement that this is the year to act on a transit system.

In the House, Rep. Joe Souki (D, Waihee-Wailuku), Transportation Committee chairman, says he thinks there is already agreement to give mass-transit taxing authority to the counties.

"There will be legislation to permit the counties to raise taxes for mass transit. ... It will pass the House and Senate," Souki predicted.

But 12 years ago the Legislature did the same thing, but the City Council failed to authorize the tax increase and the transit effort died.

Souki warns, however, that just a transit plan will not solve Honolulu's traffic woes. He wants to see cars taken off the road by making it economically painful to own multiple cars.

"The question is, Does the community and the policy-makers have the will and courage to come up with negative incentives for owning cars?" Souki said.

Another issue that has had its day in past legislative sessions, traffic cameras, is also coming back. Souki said he is working to get Honolulu police approval for a plan to put traffic cameras to record speeders in various locations and then automatically ticket the speeding drivers.

Such a system was tried in 2001, and the public outcry was so loud that the Legislature was forced to repeal the project.

"It wouldn't be all over the place, but in selected locations because you can't have police everywhere," Souki argued.

Another returning issue that might have a better chance to succeed this year is election of the attorney general.

Sen. Colleen Hanabusa (D, Nanakuli-Makua), Judiciary Committee chairwoman, a longtime supporter of making the AG elected rather than appointed, says she thinks the idea can move this year.

"I believe there is support for a constitutional amendment to allow the public to decide whether the attorney general should be publicly elected," Hanabusa said.

One way for the issue to gather more support would be to tie it to another government reform proposal, that of public funding for political campaigns.

"Interesting, it has been a Republican Party agenda item, but it was Mark Bennett (the present attorney general under GOP Gov. Linda Lingle) that testified against it, so it isn't pushed anymore by the Republican administration," Hanabusa said.

While Lingle says she is hoping for a session of cooperation and consensus between her administration and the Democratic-controlled Legislature, the majority party leaders doubt it.

"I would like to have a good working relationship with the administration, but obviously communications is a huge problem," Bunda said.

House and Senate leaders met last week with Lingle to discuss the upcoming session, but Bunda said little was accomplished.

"Right now the relationship is not hot nor cold; it is just very cool," Bunda said.

Souki, a former House speaker, says Lingle has failed to move her agenda through the Democratic Legislature, and it has hurt her.

"She got spanked in the last session, and Lingle knows that she needs to come up with better results," Souki said.