HR120

WHEREAS, the City and County of Honolulu's Department of Transportation Services (DTS) and the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) have prepared an alternative analysis (AA) and are preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a proposed project to provide high capacity transit service; and

WHEREAS, the alternative analysis was never seriously explored because of the city Administration's conclusion that it would not be eligible for sharing in the tax surcharge revenue; and

WHEREAS, as a consequence, the alternative of HOT, or for including HOT within the mix of technologies to generate a best transit corridor solution, was handicapped and its technical advantages masked by a lower financing evaluation score; and

WHEREAS, the City and County of Honolulu Corporation Counsel in a October 30, 2006 written statement concluded that the statute does allow, as currently written, that "in the case of building bus stations used to connect riders from locations off the transit route with transit stations, … the revenues … can be used to build such stations"; and

WHEREAS, HOT lanes combine rolls of facilitating connections of riders to transfer and parking sites, as well as being a principle component of a transit project; and

WHEREAS, additional structures and technology developments, such as those embodied in HOT lane descriptions in the literature, and successfully built in cities elsewhere, have been demonstrated to be valuable and low cost components essential to overall transit improvement; and

WHEREAS, it is to the advantage of the State to have a mix of component transport ideas, such as rail, bus, ferry, transit management, and private mobility services for example, that can be judged on the same footing, one to another, and composed as a unified, best-performing and cost effective project; and

WHEREAS, Hawaii Revised Statutes 46-16.8 states that the "county surcharge on state tax shall not be used to build or repair public roads or highways, bicycle paths, or support public transportation systems already in existence prior to July 12, 2005"; and

WHEREAS, the state economy, the shape of development on Oahu, energy conservation, congestion relief, and tax burden should not suffer as a result of a financing evaluation criteria unnecessarily prejudiced by this law; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2007, the Senate concurring, that the House standing committee on Transportation and the Senate standing committee on Transportation and Government Operations are requested to revisit Hawaii Revised Statutes section 46-16.8 by including language stating the county surcharge may be used to build or repair public roads that will have an anticipated positive impact or decrease in costs of a transit corridor project, so as to include HOT lanes as a concurrent solution to relieving traffic congestion; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu, the Honolulu City Council, chairperson of the House committee on Transportation, chairperson of the Senate committee on Transportation and Government Operations, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Senate President, the state Department of Transportation, the city Department of Transportation Services, and the Governor.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

HOT lanes; concurrent option; request

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	120
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007
STATE OF HAWAII