Mayor Kirk Caldwell is proposing an increase in the fuel tax from 16.5 cents per gallon to 21.5 cents per gallon. This 5 cents increase would generate an estimated $15 million per year which would be used to help repair streets and restore bus routes. According to Caldwell, thus fuel tax would only cost the average motorist $21.45 a year. However, some of the city council members are reluctant to support the fuel tax increase.
Ann Kobayashi, the city council’s budget chairwoman, argued that the tax would also hurt companies that rely on trucks, vans and buses to transport goods and people. Kobayashi stated, “The delivery trucks are going to be taxed, also, and then they’re going to pass on their increased cost to the store and the store is going to pass on their increase to the consumer. The same with all the utility trucks and repair trucks.”
Ikaika Anderson, city councilman, noted, “The owners of electric vehicles don’t pay the gasoline tax, and yet they utilize our roads. That leaves the folks who drive fossil fuel-powered automobiles to face the burden of paying for our roads. As people switch to electric vehicles and as people switch to public transportation with gasoline taxes increasing, I think that we’re unfairly shifting the burden.”
Source: Honolulu Star Advertiser, 3-15-2013, www.staradvertiser.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, Realtor®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
www.myhawaiihomesearch.com
www.myhawaiicondo.com
www.myhawaiidreamhome.com
Posted by Jeff Uyemura-Reyes, Broker-in-Charge, Realtor®
Global Executive Realty, LLC
www.myhawaiihomesearch.com
www.myhawaiicondo.com
www.myhawaiidreamhome.com
