Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi signed the City and County of Honolulu budget on Friday.
Overall, the city and county’s budget comes in at around $3.4 billion, and highlights include tax relief and housing. The capital improvements budget will tack on $1.43 billion.
"It reflects the priorities that we believe in, and what we believe is of absolutely important importance for us and what we want to get done for the city in this coming fiscal year," Blangiardi said.
The next fiscal year begins July 1, and the budget includes more than $170 million for affordable housing. An additional $55 million will specifically address housing and service facilities for people experiencing homelessness. There's about $15.4 million for similar investments.
The budget also includes a one-time $350 real property tax credit that’ll help more than 150,000 residents. The council also proposed lowering the residential real property tax rate.
Honolulu Budget and Fiscal Services Director Andy Kawano said the administration will continue to look at tax relief measures.
"We think we have done the right thing, and I look forward to having more discussions with homeowners as they have questions getting through this year," Kawano said.
The Honolulu Police Department will account for $354 million of the budget. An additional $400,000 will help the Honolulu Police Department's Chinatown Task Force.
"A patrolling police officer is the best deterrent to crime," Honolulu City Council Chair Tommy Waters said. "We're putting an additional $40 million into HPD's budget."
Waters continued, "We're also going to expect more from our police department. We want the police officers out there patrolling. We want them out there catching the bad guys."
