HONOLULU voters are on board with a rail transit system that is necessary and affordable, although cost estimates are steep when you include inflation and financing charges. Even newly released figures show that the present general excise surcharge and expected federal financing are enough to pay for and provide a green light for the project, scheduled for completion a decade from now.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann estimated two years ago that the transit system from Kapolei to Ala Moana would cost $3.7 billion, which has increased to $3.9 billion because of inflation during that period. Inflation and the finance charges on bonds through 2030 are expected to bring the total to nearly $5.2 billion, according to the city's draft environmental impact statement released last weekend.

The City Council is poised to change the route to include Honolulu Airport instead of Salt Lake. That would increase the current cost to $4.1 billion and the ultimate cost, including inflation and finance charges, to $5.4 billion, according to the impact statement. An airport route is more sensible and is likely to be more acceptable to ensure federal funding.

Inflation is expected to rise to 3.3 percent in 2009, and inflation projected for the 23-year period of paying for it comes to $876 million. Bonds and short-term loans to bridge any funding gap would cost $479 million in finance charges, according to the impact statement.

The statement's authors did the math and found the project to be feasible using more than $4 billion in revenue from the 0.5 percent general excise tax surcharge authorized by the Legislature to run through 2022 and $1.2 billion in federal funding expected from the New Starts program of the Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration.

The FTA has agreed to consider the funding request, which has congressional support. Sen. Daniel Inouye's elevation to the chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee should enhance the assistance.

Outgoing City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, who opposed the transit system in her failed mayoral candidacy on Tuesday, accused the Hannemann administration of “;lying to the people”; by delaying release of the environmental statement until 105,000 people had voted absentee, but her charge is not supported by evidence.

The environmental statement included no new information except the identification of more than 80 properties that would be displaced by the rail's construction of the Salt Lake route. Such disruption caused by the Salt Lake or airport route pales in comparison to the properties affected by construction of the H-1 freeway in the early 1950s.