HART receives $60 million in GET revenue for rail construction

News Release from City and County of Honolulu, May 6, 2016

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) received $60.9 million in General Excise and Use Tax (GET) surcharge revenue for the first quarter of calendar year 2016.

The quarterly installment of GET surcharge revenue covers the months of January, February and March, and was about $2.2 million dollars more than was forecasted for the quarter based on the project’s current financial plan.

“We have now collected a total of $1.69 billion in surcharge revenue for the rail project,” said HART Executive Director and CEO Dan Grabauskas. “Our overall surcharge revenue is still tracking about 1.12 per cent below projections, which amounts to roughly $36 million less than projected. We will continue our long-standing practice of making our GET receipts public, and to monitor our GET revenue closely.”

The half-percent GET surcharge for Oahu, which by law can only be used for the rail system, began in January 2007. The surcharge revenue is expected to fund more than 70 percent of the project’s costs, with the remaining balance to be paid using federal funds.

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1.69B + 188M (10% State override) = $1.878B

SA: Rail’s GET surcharge haul swings back into positive territory