Mayor Blangiardi signs the Temporary Accommodation Tax Act

HONOLULU (KHON2) – Mayor Rick Blangiardi signed the Transient Accommodation Tax (TAT) law on December 14th at 12 noon

The law will allow the state to tax visitors who come to Oahu, and it will allow the city and county of Honolulu to use the fund for the Honolulu Railroad Project. In the past, the state collected the taxes and distributed them to the individual counties. Now, new state laws allow each county to collect the TAT and decide what the funds will be used for.

The 3% tax rate is expected to raise between $ 75 million and $ 85 million annually. According to Blangiardi’s office, the bill will not only restore lost TAT revenue, it will also help the state’s natural resources by addressing the impact of tourism on O’ahu and ensuring Honolulu has a functioning railroad system.

Blangiardi said after looking at the state budget for the Honolulu Rail Project, the estimated budget is around $ 9 billion. He said the state had spent 5 billion so far.

When asked if the rail will make it to Ala Moana, Blangiardi said, “There is still time to find out how to get to Ala Moana. If the numbers don’t make sense, the strategies don’t make sense. ”

“At the end of the day we inherited a difficult situation. I’m not giving up on Ala Moana. It’s about how much money we have and what we can build with it, ”said Blangiardi.

At the press conference, Kahikina was asked how HART would use the funds.

I cannot stress enough that HART is not an expert on TAT. I just took our June 2021 earnings – it was 75 million times ten years, “said Kahikina. “HART, we have been commissioned to build it.”

Kahikina went on and repeated to Blangiardi: “Ala Moana is the main through station on the island. I’m with the mayor – we have to go to Ala Moana, but I don’t have any numbers at the moment. “