Updated: 5/13/2020, 1:50 p.m.
Where Hawaii stands
Hawaii recorded three new coronavirus cases today. The state health department reported that the count is now at 638 and the deaths stand at 17. Oahu cases are at 414, Maui County at 117, Hawaii Island at 75 and Kauai County at 21. There are 11 cases diagnosed out of state.
City budget with $133M shortfall covered advances
A Honolulu City Council committee yesterday approved cuts and changes in the city budget for the next fiscal year to cover a projected $133 million shortfall due to COVID-19.
Conditions have changed dramatically since Mayor Kirk Caldwell rolled out the city's proposed $2.98 billion operating and $1.27 billion capital improvement budgets in early March.
City budget officials now expect to see real property tax delinquencies rise in fiscal year 2021 as people struggle in a pandemic-battered economy. They also think the counties won’t get their share of the transient accommodations taxes from the state, which is facing its own financial troubles.
Lower revenues from fuel taxes, car registrations, vehicle weight taxes, building permit fees and other revenue sources will also add to the expected shortfall, one that the city will need to make up to produce a required balanced budget.
“Because revenues are adjusted down by over 130 million, we have to reduce expenses or appropriations a like amount to balance the budget," Nelson Koyanagi, director of the city Department of Budget and Fiscal Services, told the council's budget committee.
The city recommended several deep cuts to department budgets. One to TheBus and TheHandi-Van amounts to about $72 million. Koyanagi said that was done in part because ridership has been very low during the pandemic. But the city can also cover the cuts with funding it received from the federal CARES Act of roughly $90. 8 million.
"Basically, the reason for that grant is to make sure that the jurisdictions can continue operating public transportation,” Koyanagi said.
The city is also using savings from vacancies, reduced funding for the rail project and made other adjustments to cover the remainder of the deficit.
He said the city has options if the shortfall grows worse, such as borrowing internally between different funds or selling bonds. Since the bond market has improved somewhat, he said, the city has been discussing a possible bond sale that could take place between July and September.
Koyanagi said August real property tax payments will be telling if the collections don't come in as expected. The city may then need to impose budget restrictions.
There will be no change to property tax rates under the spending plan, although Rick Egged of the Waikiki Improvement Association asked for a rollback of last year's rate increase for hotels and resorts given the near shutdown of the visitor industry.
The budget committee did move forward measures to increase municipal golf course fees and Department of Planning and Permitting fees.
The operating and capital improvement spending plans go next to the full council for final approval.
--HPR's Sandee Oshiro
HART start date delayed to March, $100M shortfall threatens
The initial start date for Honolulu’s long-delayed rail system will be pushed back again. The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation largely blames COVID-19.
Instead of December, the trains are now scheduled to begin running in March of next year.
But the City Council budget committee pointed to a bigger issue with the project. Not only has it not gotten federal funding since 2015 for failing to meet deadlines, it is projecting revenues to fall short by $100 million next fiscal year – if general excise and transient accommodation taxes don’t come through given the broken economy.
Council member Kymberly Pine asked HART officials if they planned to come back to the city seeking help if if the budget shortfall materializes. HART’s interim chief financial officer Ruth Lohr said it is too early to say.
“It’s not until we know what that magnitude is to say we do have a funding shortfall ... Because that's where there's that gap, right? And we would need to then look to what other funding source or what, you know, we would bring it back to the city.”
Lohr added that the onus is on HART to come up with solutions if the shortfall emerges.
HART has also pushed back an April 22 deadline for receiving bids on the final segment of the 20-mile rail project known as P3. The pandemic made it difficult for potential bidders to meet the deadline, said HART CEO Andrew Robbins, so it has been pushed to July 23.
Councilman Tommy Waters says he fears that the Federal Transit Administration will walk away from the rail project because of HART's many missed deadlines.
Robbins said he didn't think FTA would abandon the rail project because he has been in touch with FTA regional officials in San Francisco and that other transit systems are impacted by COVID-19 as well.
But Budget Committee Chair Joey Manahan said when he and Council Chair Ikaika Anderson visited FTA officials in Washington, D.C., earlier this year, the agency had significant concerns about the slippage in the rail schedule and delay in putting out the bid for the P3 project.
"Our taxpayers are on the hook and we need to get this completed," Waters said.
The budget committee moved HART's operating and capital improvement budgets to the full council, where more discussion is expected on the project now estimated at $8.3 billion.
--HPR's Sandee Oshiro
City to launch small business relief program
Small businesses in Honolulu can apply to the city for assistance starting Monday.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell announced a $25 million small business relief and recovery fund.
Businesses will have to apply for grants through participating local credit unions but they do not have to be members of the credit union to get approved.
Caldwell says the program is meant to help businesses with 30 employees or fewer, or make a million dollars or less in annual revenues.
Qualified businesses can get up to $10,000 dollars each.
"They have to have a commercial address. It can’t be a business that you operate out of your home, but businesses that have rent and utilities and personnel costs," Caldwell said.
"And while it can be used to cover business costs, where I find it the most significant is that it can help cover the cost for modifications as we open up. And so it can be used for things like increasing physical separation between employees and customers. It can be used for implementing services that you can do remotely so you can still do your business, but maybe from a distance."
Caldwell says the program’s funding comes from the $387 million the city received under the federal CARES Act.
More information about the relief fund can be found at oneoahu.org.
--HPR's Casey Harlow
Hawaii Food Bank distribution at Aloha Stadium today
Cars are already lining up today to be part of the Hawaii Food Bank distribution at Aloha Stadium, the latest in an ongoing program to feed those impacted by job loss and other effects from the coronavirus emergency.
The distribution begins at 10 a.m. but vehicles are allowed to queue up starting at 7 a.m.
Enter from Gate 3 along Kahuapa‘ani Street. See map for further directions.
The sponsors of the distribution ask that two to three families carpool to minimize traffic. One adult from each household must show a valid, government-issued ID.
The wait can be as long as four hours, so drivers should have full tanks and be prepared with snacks. Empty your trunk, backseat, hatchback or tail gate to make space for the food. Bring a pen and a completed household information form for each family.
About 4,000 families will be assisted or until supplies run out.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Editor's note: We’d like to hear how you’re coping with the latest developments in dealing with the spread of the coronavirus. You can call our talkback line at 808-792-8217. Or e-mail us at talkback@hawaiipublicradio.org.
