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Mayor must consider
taxpayers have limited
budgets, too

THE ISSUE Mufi Hannemann's budget proposal includes a 50-percent hike in the vehicle weight tax.

MAYOR Hannemann handed city residents another tab this week as he proposed an operating budget 10 percent higher than Jeremy Harris' and a capital improvements plan that would boost spending by about a third.

His call for a 50-percent increase in the vehicle weight tax follows Hannemann's bid to raise sewer fees by 25 percent next year and 10 percent in each of the five subsequent years.

The growth of the budgets, totaling $1.486 billion, conflicts with Hannemann's self-description as a fiscal conservative, but he contends so much was left undone during the last administration that there's a lot of catching up to do.

From the condition of roads and sewers, that's evident, and though some car owners aren't pleased with the increase, they have been even less pleased with the teeth-rattling holes that pock the asphalt.

The mayor's $1.35 billion operating budget realistically figures in what he termed "moderate" pay raises for employees, some of whose unions endorsed his election last year, and he hopes to add a few to their numbers to handle duties he says have been curtailed for lack of live bodies. This is in keeping with Hannemann's promise to better serve the public.

Hannemann has repeatedly stressed that spending will be for "need to" projects and thus far taxpayers have accepted this. However, they cannot be hit for much more and the mayor should be held to his pledge to be "accountable for the public's money."

About $22 million extra would flow into city coffers from the vehicle tax, which is weight-based because heavier cars put more of a strain on streets. However, the current formula levies more on an old pickup truck than a new luxury sedan. Though Hannemann would not likely want to emulate his predecessor, he and the City Council should review Harris' idea to couple weight with a vehicle's value.

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Cell phones pose danger
on roads

THE ISSUE The House has approved a bill to prohibit use of hand-held cell phones while driving.

The state House has approved a moderate proposal to ban the use of hand-held cellular phones while driving but permit the use of hands-free devices. Although studies have shown talking on both types of phones to be dangerous while behind the wheel, the enormous growth of cell phone usage makes only a halfway measure politically palatable. It should be enacted and expanded in later years to include all cell phones.

Opponents of the bill claim that speaking on a phone while driving is no more distracting than numerous other activities, such as eating, drinking or changing a CD. Numerous studies have shown them to be wrong.

The most cited study, conducted in 1997 by the New England Journal of Commerce, found that the risk of a collision when using a cell phone quadrupled, the same effect as intoxication. Subsequent research at the University of Utah has found that talking on the cell phone also is more distractive than other in-car activities, diverting the driver's attention "to an engaging cognitive context other than the one immediately associated with driving." That is why many drivers observed talking on the phone appear to be in another mind zone.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that at any given daylight moment last year, an estimated 8 percent of all motorists in the United States -- about 1.2 million drivers -- were using either hand-held or hands-free telephones. That is up from 6 percent in 2002 and 4 percent in 2000.

"The potential for danger grows every day," says Rep. Joe Souki, a co-sponsor of the bill, which would subject violators to fines of up to $200 while exempting emergency calls. The danger would lessen if Hawaii were to join New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., in prohibiting conversations on hand-held cell phones while driving. Fifteen other states are considering similar legislation.