Honolulu rail board members spent much of their Thursday meeting — the first since state lawmakers adjourned without a funding deal — debating how to cover the project’s short-term construction costs.
But it was clear that the severe, multibillion-dollar cash shortage still facing rail in the long term weighed heavily on their minds, too.
“Clearly, our needs are going to exceed $350 million over the course of the project,” board member Colbert Matsumoto said Thursday, shortly after rail officials announced he was stepping down from the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board and attending his last meeting.
His comments came as the HART board considered asking the City Council to approve up to $350 million in short-term bonds to cover existing construction expenses — the contracts to build the elevated transit line as far as Middle Street.
“It’s not going to last you that long,” added state Department of Transportation Director Ford Fuchigami, who sits on the HART board.
The members Thursday opted to defer their request for city approval amid their concerns they don’t have enough information to proceed, with so much uncertainty still surrounding rail.
Instead, the board’s Finance Committee will weigh the matter next month — and then the full board will consider seeking approval again.
If the city doesn’t issue general-obligation bonds for rail costs soon, however, the project will run out of money in January, HART Chief Financial Officer Robert Yu told the board. That’s despite the general excise tax funding continuing to trickle into rail’s coffers through 2027.
“We need the cash flow now,” HART Interim Executive Director Krishniah Murthy said after Thursday’s meeting. “In order to provide the cash flow, (the city) has to float the bonds.”
The project faces an approximately $3 billion shortfall, including financing, to reach Ala Moana Center as planned, based on the latest official estimates. Yu said Thursday that borrowing $2 billion at once would double the city’s debt load and hurt its credit rating.
Proponents of completing the full 20-mile, 21-station system are hoping the state Legislature will convene in a special session this summer and try once more to hash out a funding deal. Murthy said Thursday that the Federal Transit Administration, which has a $1.55 billion funding deal for rail, is “anxious” to see a full recovery plan for the project.
After the meeting, Matsumoto said he had too many other professional commitments (he also serves as trustee for the state’s Employees’ Retirement System) and couldn’t give rail the attention that it requires. He added that he’d been considering the move since voters passed a Honolulu City Charter amendment last fall giving the HART board more oversight responsibility.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell has tapped former Hawaiian Airlines executive Hoyt Zia to replace Matsumoto on the board. Zia served as Hawaiian’s senior vice president and general counsel and corporate secretary from 2007 to 2016, according to a news release from Caldwell’s office.
It’s the latest change to a 10-member board that’s seen eight of its members replaced since 2015 as it attempts to oversee the state’s largest-ever public works project.
Matsumoto, who as Bishop Estate’s court master helped lead the institution out of a tumultuous period in the late 1990s, was appointed to the HART board by Caldwell in April 2016 to replace its former chairman, Don Horner.
Matsumoto’s term was slated to expire in 2020, and he had been leading the semi-autonomous rail agency’s effort to find a permanent rail executive director to replace Dan Grabauskas, who resigned in August.
Matsumoto also serves on the board of Oahu Publications Inc., parent company of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
He is the second HART board member to step down from the oversight group in as many meetings.
Last month original HART board member William “Buzz” Hong announced he was leaving to join the Honolulu Fire Commission. Hong served on the HART board since its 2011 inception. Damien Kim, the board’s current chairman, is the only original board member left.
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The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
