HONOLULU (KHON2) — Mayor Rick Blangiardi signed the Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT) bill into law on Dec. 14, at 12 p.m.
The bill will allow the state to tax visitors coming to Oahu and it will allow the City and County of Honolulu to use the fund for the Honolulu Rail Project. In the past, the state would collect the taxes and distribute them to each county. Now new state laws allow each county to collect the TAT and decide what to use the funds for.
The 3% tax rate is expected to generate between $75 to $85 million a year. According to Blangiardi’s office, the bill will not only restore lost TAT revenue but will support the state’s natural resources by addressing the impacts of tourism on O’ahu and ensuring Honolulu has a functional rail system.
Blangiardi said after looking at the state’s budget for the Honolulu Rail Project, the estimated budget is around 9 billion dollars. He said so far the state spent 5 billion.
When asked if the rail will make it to Ala Moana, Blangiardi said, “There is still time to figure out how we will get to Ala Moana. If the numbers don’t make sense, then the strategies won’t make sense.”
“At the end of the day, what we inherited is a tough situation. I am not giving up on Ala Moana. It is about how much money do we have and what we can build with that,” said Blangiardi.
In the press conference, Kahikina was asked how HART will use the funds.
I cannot stress enough that HART is not a TAT expert. I just went off of our receipts from June 2021 — it came out to 75 million and multiply that by ten years,” said Kahikina. “HART, we are charged with construction.”
Kahikina continued and echoed Blangiardi, “Ala Moana is the main transit station for the island. I am with the Mayor — we need to get to Ala Moana but I don’t have the numbers right now.”
