Cooperation
vowed over
traffic problems

Gov. Linda Lingle pledged cooperation with Mayor Mufi Hannemann in coming up with traffic solutions for Oahu -- including mass transit.

"Both Mayor Hannemann and I have been supporters of mass transit on Oahu, and his election offers us an opportunity to look at that issue again," Lingle said in her State of the State address.

But the governor also said the ultimate decision on whether to raise taxes to pay for rail transit should rest with the city, particularly the City Council.

"It is really a home-rule issue," Lingle said. "That is, if the counties feel they need to raise additional revenue for their projects, they should have the right to do that and not be artificially restricted by state law, to be so limited to only property taxes."

Lingle has previously supported a rail line and originally said she would propose a county-option tax increase.

But when her own GOP legislative caucus did not back raising taxes, Lingle withdrew the proposal.

Hannemann has just returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., where he met with federal and congressional leaders and discussed long- and short-term traffic solutions.

He said he looks forward to working with the Lingle administration on affordable housing, and streamlining the permitting process for businesses and transportation.

"I've always felt that the state and county have to get on the same page," Hannemann said after her speech. "She expressed a willingness to work with the county, and I have both short-term and long-term solutions that we have already been talking about with her administration."

He added: "I think we're going to make some headway. I don't feel that that's going to be a bottleneck in terms of what we have seen in the past, with the state going one way and the county going another way."

The state Legislature is considering whether to allow counties to levy a tax to pay for transportation projects, including rail transit, and create a transit authority with the power to raise funds, including taxation, to pay for a rail system.

Hannemann said he has not taken a position on any of the legislative proposals, but said planning for rail should continue along with working out other solutions.

"We just can't put all our eggs in rail," Hannemann said. "Whether it's ferry, whether it's rail, whether it's synchronizing traffic signals, we've got to get together and work on it and be on the same page."

U.S. Reps. Neil Abercrombie and Ed Case have asked in a letter to U.S. House transportation leaders to include a mass transit project for Honolulu in the reauthorization of federal transit funding.

"I'm happy to see that letter," City Council Transportation Chairman Nestor Garcia said. "Now we need to come up with our end (for funding)."