Lingle says tax use
a matter for counties

Lawmakers object, saying their
revenue proposal is supposed
to go toward transit

Hawaii's four counties should decide how they want to spend money from a proposed general excise tax increase, Gov. Linda Lingle says.

Noting the counties should have the power of home rule, Lingle told reporters yesterday in a meeting at her state Capitol office that a county-option tax increase should not be limited to transit improvements.

"I don't think the counties should be told what it can be used for. If the counties want to use it for affordable housing, if they want to use it to hire more police officers, whatever they want to use it for, I think they should be allowed to," Lingle said.

Earlier this week, the Senate approved an excise tax increase of one-half of 1 percentage point. The House has already approved a 1 percentage point increase.

Raising the excise tax to 5 percent from 4 percent is estimated to bring in an extra $300 million a year statewide. The counties have said they want the money for transit.

"I have no problem with it being used for mass transit, but I think the counties should have that authority to deal with issues in their own counties," Lingle said. "It is a position I have taken for 20 years when I was a county official."

Legislators are rejecting Lingle's call for more home rule.

Sen. Brian Taniguchi, Ways and Means Committee chairman, said the Legislature "wants to be sure the money is used for the purposes we thought they were asking for, and that is transit."

Before using an increase in the excise tax to fund more county services, Taniguchi said the counties should exercise the taxing powers they already have.

"They have the power with the fuel tax and car registration and property tax," he said.

Taniguchi said he is not convinced the transit tax increase is needed this year.

"To be honest, if we are going to raise the excise tax, I would prefer to see the raise dedicated to education," he said.

Lingle also told reporters that she would veto a campaign spending reform bill, House Bill 1713, that would allow candidates to pay for their campaigns with state money if they promise not to accept outside donations.

Lingle called it the worst bill this legislative session.

"It will charge the taxpayers to run elections -- to make them pay for campaigns of candidates. I think the taxpayers would revolt against it.

"It would force them to support candidates they may be bitterly opposed to," Lingle said.

The governor said that if taxpayers want to support a candidate or publicly financed elections, they can check off a contribution on their tax returns.

"If you are a candidate, you can apply for public funding now. This new approach of forcing taxpayers to fund campaigns is just not a good idea," Lingle said.

The senior citizens advocacy group AARP released a survey yesterday showing that 75 percent of residents support the proposal for public funding of elections.

According to the survey of 1,000 people, 86 percent of respondents said they felt campaign contributions moderately or greatly influenced policies supported by elected officials.

The telephone survey of Hawaii residents over the age of 18 was conducted Dec. 10 through Jan. 3 for AARP by Honolulu-based Mattson Sunderland Research & Planning Associates Inc. It has a sampling error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.