Rail

...elected officials raised taxes to pay for Honolulu County’s rail system while indicating their intention to conduct an in-depth, forensic audit of the over-budget, behind-schedule megaproject....

...The addition of the fifth lane along the Wai’anae Coast has been long overdue....

...the City doesn't really care all that much about these particular businesses or their owners....

...The administration just told New York and New Jersey they would have to fund their $13 billion Hudson Tunnel rail project on their own, backing out of an Obama-era promise to foot half the bill....

...This ‘consensus’ of disbelief is proven by the massive investment in sea-level construction of Kakaako condos and Honolulu Rail.... 

...Gov. Ige will participate in discussions with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao....

...project announcement is the effective taking date triggering property owners' right to compensation and damages....

...FTA also stated that they are watching to see what HART’s new strategy to build the City Center portion of the guideway will look like....

“Because Farrington Highway and Kamehameha Highway are on the National Highway System, the reconstruction projects are eligible for Federal aid funds, subject to selection by OahuMPO and HIDOT.”  -- FHWA Acting Director Nadeau, October 7, 2015

“The FTA will allow nothing less.” -- Kirk Caldwell

...Speaker Saiki named Tobias “Toby” Martyn and Kamani Kuala‘au ... Senate President Kouchi named Kalbert K. Young and Wesley Machida as his appointees to the board....

...At no point did the FTA reject a “Plan B” option....

...the four horsemen of the transit apocalypse include....

...bills passed by the Honolulu City Council last week create and authorize the Waikīkī Transportation Management Special Improvement District....

...You know you are in trouble when you have to write a recovery plan for a project that isn’t even half built....

...HART’s CEO, for example, gets $317,000 plus a “housing allowance” of about $4,600 a month and a “transportation allowance” of $600 a month....

...number of significant condo and retail projects have wrapped up on Oahu, while fewer new buildings have broken ground, resulting in an overall reduction in construction activity and employment....

"...Doing nothing is unacceptable...." -- Mayor Kirk Caldwell, Sept 18, 2017

...the Honolulu City Council unanimously approved Resolution 17-199 to audit the rail for financial cost overruns, but watered down language that would’ve made the audit “forensic.”....

...The special session rail bill, SB 4, provides that if the Foundation wins and the State is ordered to refund money to the City, then the State will scoop the same amount of money from the City’s share of transient accommodations tax....

... to  discuss the current status of the Honolulu rail project. He will meet with representatives from Hitachi, Seibu, and Tokyu Corporation ....

...the most recent version of the proposed resolution requests an “independent forensic audit” of HART operations and contract awards....

...In two and a half years we have successfully reduced the pipeline from nearly $750 million to $505 million....

......Our floor amendment to exclude neighbor islands from the 1% TAT increase received support from four other neighbor island Representatives....

...Ige’s signing of the rail funding bill also allows the Honolulu City Council to approve Bill 45, which extends O‘ahu’s half-percent surcharge to the state general excise tax another three years....

...The TAT, when it was enacted in 1986, was primarily meant to fund the Hawaii Convention Center....

...Senators highlighted in YELLOW are up for reelection in 2018.  Only four of them voted for the tax hike....

...Timson worked at First Hawaiian Bank as vice president while FHB Chairman Don Horner was HART board chair. She organized large groups of screaming union supporters to crash, harass and threaten at public meetings....

...Require the State Auditor to perform a forensic audit to look for fraud, waste, and abuse....

...FTA is complicit.  That’s why it is likely to approve a Plan B that stops at Middle Street....

...SB1 has been deleted from the WAM Hearing notice and replaced by SB4.... WAM Hearing Monday 3pm, Capitol Auditorium....

Senate Committee on Ways and Means to hold hearing Monday, August 28th beginning at 3pm...

...The Recovery Plan does not include a financial plan with funding sufficient to cover HART's current estimated total Project cost....

Hawaii lawmakers are finally embracing the call for a “deep dive” audit of the Honolulu rail project, but how they follow through on that embrace could make it all for naught....

...we were told that this was not a negotiation but a take it or leave it situation....

...buried in one of the technical reports that are referenced and made part of the FEIS so you would not be able to say they didn’t tell you....

...A call for Republicans to push for a forensic audit of HART and their failed rail project!....

...to transform the community....

...In a week, lawmakers will be opening a special legislative session to determine how they are going to raise our taxes....

...despite the fact that City Auditor Edwin Young told the committee “the red flags were there”....

...HART Directors discussed using public-private partnerships to help fund the remaining elements of Honolulu's Rail Transit Project....

...City and HART officials were often unable to give specific answers to our questions and rarely took responsibility for their cost overruns and inflated budgets....

...today's information hearing is nothing more than kabuki theater designed to make us believe they're concerned....

“What is needed is a full, independent forensic audit of the project, to identify the reason — or reasons — for its significant cost overruns and missed deadlines...."

...the immediate cash flow problems have been solved for the most part by the Honolulu City Council, which authorized the sale of $350 million in bonds to help bail out the project....

...Mahalo for helping this idea to catch on....

...Honolulu Rail Project is on track to becoming the costliest and most mismanaged public transportation project in our nation's history....

...Cliff Slater told the HART board that “everything should come up on the table, as John Henry Felix is calling for.”....

“While highways funding is limited, we haven’t let that stop us...."

...The Hawaii Legislature is hosting a public informational briefing on state funding for the City & County of Honolulu’s rail project at 10 a.m. Aug. 14 in the State Capitol auditorium....