HART receives $48.5 million in GET revenue for rail construction
News Release from HART October 24, 2014
The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) received $48.5 million in General Excise and Use Tax (GET) surcharge revenue this past quarter for construction of the Honolulu rail project.
The State Department of Taxation notified HART of the recent GET quarterly revenue installment, which covers the period of July through September of this year.
"We now have collected nearly $1.35 billion in local revenue funding for rail," said HART Executive Director and CEO Dan Grabauskas. "The steady GET surcharge revenue, along with the $1.55 billion in secured federal funds shows our funding remains strong for the project."
The half-percent GET surcharge for Oahu, which by law can only be used for Honolulu's rail system, began in January 2007 and is set to expire at the end of 2022. The surcharge is estimated to fund 70 percent of the project's cost, with the remaining balance to be paid for with federal funds.
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Rail GE Tax revenues fall below projections for third quarter in a row
CB: ...What city public information officers chose not to include in the press release, however, is that the quarterly revenue collection is $5.3 million below what was projected for the project. (10% shortfall--just happens to equal the State's override for collecting the tax)
This was also the case for the previous two quarters. For the period ending in June, GET revenue came in 14 percent lower than what was hoped. In March, GET revenues were 20 percent short.
Overall, GET revenue is about $40.8 million behind projections, Scott Ishikawa, a HART spokesman, told Civil Beat.
GET revenues are expected to fund nearly 70 percent of the $5.2 billion Honolulu rail project.
In March, HART downgraded the GET revenues from “on track” to in need of “monitoring,” in its Balanced Scorecard....
read ... Shortfall
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