Mayor says he
could levy user fees

Hannemann sees little choice
but to have users pay
for sewers and parks

Get ready for possibly higher fees for some city services, and fees for things that are free now.

Airing Monday "Island Insights" is a half-hour public affairs program produced by PBS Hawaii about the community. Airing Mondays at 7:30 p.m., the show is hosted alternately by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin's Richard Borreca and University of Hawaii history professor Dan Boylan. The HGEA and the Star-Bulletin are underwriters of the program.

As Mayor Mufi Hannemann prepares to deal with what he calls a "fiscal crisis," it might be residents who will have to pay the bills.

"I think we may have to bite the bullet and actually talk about assessing some fees or higher fees," Hannemann said during a taping of PBS Hawaii's "Island Insights" segment that airs at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

"Nobody likes to talk about it, but I have to be very realistic with the citizens that we service, and that is if we're going to fix your roads, if we're going to fix the sewers ... we've got to address those issues now, and it's going to cost money. It's got to come from someplace."

Hannemann is looking at an increase in sewer fees -- but probably not as high as the 23 percent increase considered by former Mayor Jeremy Harris. And he is warming up to the idea of raising taxes to pay for rail transit.

Hannemann is conducting the "Mayor's Review," an auditlike look at city finances and functions, as he prepares a budget to submit to the City Council next month.

"So far, my feeling is that we're going to face a deficit situation, which is why I'm very cautious about any talk of a property tax relief now, because we've got major problems that we have to fix," Hannemann said.

Raising fees or instituting new user fees could help to pay for maintenance of facilities such as at Oahu's newer parks.

"I really feel that when you look at two very viable projects that people enjoy, like for example Central Oahu Regional Park and the Waipio soccer fields, I'm not going to turn back the hands of time and say, you know, that those projects now were not worth building," he said.

"We spent the moneys, it's out there, but we don't have an ongoing maintenance plan to pay for facilities."

Hannemann said that he wants to keep the parks open, but he also has to balance the needs of outlying recreational areas whose maintenance has suffered with the attention paid to Waikiki and Central Oahu.

"So we may have to bite hard in figuring out how we assess some fees now for things that people have been used to using for free in the past," Hannemann said, "or being a little bit more entrepreneurial in luring international travelers or national groups to use our facilities here, because we can't just keep up with the maintenance."

City Council Budget Com-mittee Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said she is not surprised the mayor is talking about raising fees.

"The new administration is stuck with all the bills, and no money to pay for all the bills," Kobayashi said.

She said the Council has already passed a bill that would allow the administration to charge fees at Central Oahu Regional Park, the Waipio soccer fields and Hans L'Orange Baseball Park.

Harris' administration had not made the new fees official.

Kobayashi also said there is a California company that could enter into a "partnership" with the city to run parks using current city employees. Their plan would include charging entrance or tournament fees for big events.

Kobayashi said she opposed charging user fees a couple of years ago because the Harris administration was looking to charge for what she considered basic city services, such as garbage pickup and satellite city hall transactions.

Hannemann is also looking at higher sewer fees to fix the "bursting" that became evident in last weekend's spills during heavy rains.

"We had six sewer spills this past weekend. That's not a nice situation. Every time I thought that OK, it's pau, no more reports, my phone kept going off that evening," Hannemann said.

Harris considered a 23 percent hike in sewer fees to pay for sewer construction debt and other sewer-related costs.

Hannemann said he hopes he will not have to hit taxpayers with such a huge hike, but it is difficult to say until his administration knows how much it will cost to fix the sewers.

"I think they're going to see right now that we're definitely going to fix the roads, we're definitely going to put the sewer lines on a schedule. We're going to deal with the waste-water situation. That's what they're going to see," Hannemann said.

It is a tall order for his administration, but the voters will hold him accountable at the end of his term, he said.

"They don't mind, I believe, if you're going to raise fees ... if it's going to go for things that they want to fix now. And that's what we need to do," he said.

He said the federal government has also made it clear that local governments need to raise their own funds to pay for services.

State lawmakers have proposals this legislative session to increase the general excise tax by up to 1 percent by either levying or having the city levy the tax to fund mass transit.

"The state is putting it out to us. It's an option. It's not something that we have to do, but if we're going to get close to that rail situation, it's something that we may have to tap into," Hannemann said.

He said officials should not discount other traffic solutions, from simple ones like synchronized traffic signals or staggering city work hours, to more sophisticated ones like intra-island ferry service.

Hannemann said he is "not very keen" on a tax increase and hopes to exhaust other avenues first.