HONOLULU- Honolulu mayor Peter Carlisle used his second State of the City address to layout his vision for the city's future – a vision he says must include rail transit.“This is the only viable option for building this 21st century city and providing a sustainable future for all of O’ahu that has made it through decades of vetting and is poised to employ people now,” said the mayor in an hour long speech at Mission Memorial Auditorium.Carlisle used the first thirty-four minutes of his speech to reel off a list of city accomplishments during his more than sixteen months in office. He boasted about the success of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit last November, the construction of a third boiler at H-Power, the repaving of 263 lane miles of roads, and the initiation of 122 projects in order to comply with a federal consent decree to fix Oahu’s aging sewer infrastructure.The mayor also spent a considerable amount of time addressing the city’s AA-Plus bond rating, asserting his administration had saved millions of dollars by restructuring city debt.“Next year, thanks to our Budget and Fiscal Services department taking advantage of low interest rates and debt refunding opportunities, the city’s debt service, for the first time in eight years will be lower than the year before by about $7 million,” said Carlisle.However, after the speech the mayor was forced to defend his administration’s lifting of a self-imposed debt limit imposed by the City Council in 1996. In October of last year City Managing director Doug Chin suspended the debt ceiling so that bonds could eventually be issued for construction of the $5.3 billion rail system.Carlisle defended the move, saying Chin communicated suspension of the debt limit to former City Council Budget Chairman Ernie Martin in March of 2011. “We got information over there in March about this, so if (Martin) didn't know about it, it was somewhere in his office.”Carlisle’s two main competitors in the race for mayor quickly jumped on the news of the debt ceiling suspension.“This shows a total disregard for the public in my mind,” said Kirk Caldwell, who was appointed the city’s managing director by former mayor Mufi Hannemann in 2009 and served as acting mayor in 2010. “I believe that Mayor Carlisle owes all of us an apology,” added Caldwell. “This kind of behavior is unacceptable.”Anti-rail candidate Ben Cayetano, a former two term democratic governor, struck much the same tone while addressing the issue with reporters.“I think when you talk about transparency the way they did, it leaves a cloud that it wasn't transparent,” said Cayetano. “I think people have to look at the process that they followed and make their own decisions.”In an emailed statement to Khon2, Chin admitted “the Council could have been informed sooner regarding this internal decision,” but added suspension of the debt limit won’t go into effect until 2014.Under two budget ordinances passed by the City Council in 2009 and 2010, the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation is allowed to issue $1.97 billion in general obligation bonds, although to date no bonds have been authorized.Chin maintains suspension of the debt limit was within the scope of the administration’s powers due to the ‘unusual circumstances’ involved in building rail transit. He said unlike other city debt, bonds for rail will be paid for by a .5 percent general excise tax surcharge or federal monies.“Its financing is unique due to these exclusive, dedicated revenue sources,” said Chin.Martin, who is now chair of the City Council, reacted positively to Carlisle’s speech. He said the city can afford a $4 billion fix to the island’s sewer infrastructure, the repaving of roads rated among the worst in the nation, and construction of the elevated rail line from East Kapolei to Ala Moana.“
I think it's something that's going to be reasonable and affordable,” Martin said of the rail project.However Councilman Tom Berg disagrees. He believes there are more affordable transit alternatives to rail and wants voters to decide in November whether the HART board should disband.“The greatest thing that we can do in the 2012 election is to solidify and come to terms for an entire island that we can move on this rail with some cohesion,” said Berg. “I think it's appropriate at this time that we put it on the ballot in 2012 and repeal HART.”Berg plans on introducing a bill that would place the future of HART on the general election ballot. According to the Office of the City Clerk, the deadline for processing charter amendments is May 24.
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