Emerging Plan Would Pump Hotel Room Tax Revenue Into Rail … HART is looking into helping to cover a $3.6 billion shortfall with a share of a new 3% city hotel tax, but the City Council is noncommittal and the hotel industry is wary.
Planners with the Honolulu rail authority are analyzing how much money could be raised to help fund construction of the unfinished transit line if the city imposes its own hotel room tax and gives the project a share of the money.
But it is still unclear if the Honolulu City Council is inclined to use its new taxing authority to finance another rail bailout, and it appears certain the hotel industry will resist any plan to jack up the Oahu hotel room tax even further.
Members of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board in recent weeks have been discussing a vague plan in which the city would levy the new hotel tax, and then deliver some portion of the revenue to help HART cope with its huge budget shortfall, estimated at $3.6 billion.
