Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge during the summer of 2014?

Thousands volunteered to dump a bucket of ice water on their heads to promote awareness of the disease ALS, also called Lou Gehrig’s Disease. It was supposed to encourage donations to research the disease.

Now since becoming chairwoman of the board of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, Colleen Hanabusa has readied her own ice bucket challenge for fellow board members, the City Council and Mayor Kirk Caldwell.

“I won’t stand for hiding the ball. Everyone may be upset, but now we know what we are faced with,” Hanabusa said in an interview following last week’s HART meeting.

The meeting was to pour cold water on anyone thinking the rail project can be built as budgeted.The city does not have enough money to finish the 20-mile rail system.

No more money is only half of the bad news, because the rest of meeting was about the lousy alternatives.

Six were offered. They ranged from just building it until there is no more money or building it without the last seven stations.

“I’m not optimistic that any of them are going to pan out or make sense,” board member Terrence Lee said.

Of course they don’t make any sense. Much like critics have warned, the rail system was always more promise than reality and now it is the very definition of a dilemma, as in “requiring a choice between equally undesirable alternatives.”

As City Council Chairman Ernie Martin tweeted out: “The only thing we know for sure, is we do not have the money to build this project as planned.”

According to the latest HART figures, costs are still rising. In 2012, HART estimated that it would cost $528 million to build the last five miles of the system. HART now figures the same segment will cost $1.5 billion.

If Caldwell or the Council is not going to choose between stated choices, such as building two-thirds of a system or building a fairly useless system without stations, the answer is to get more money from the state.

That’s what Caldwell did last year, when the overbudget and overdue system was bailed out by extending the rail tax surcharge for five years.

But legislative leaders are way under-impressed with the city’s dilemma.

“I don’t think a viable option is for the mayor to come request additional GET (general excise tax) funding,” Rep. Sylvia Luke, House Finance Committee chairwoman said in an interview.

Luke added that legislators already have worries about Caldwell’s credibility regarding rail promises, and now they are seeing the estimated cost go from $6.8 billion to $7.9 billion in the past three months.

“There is a credibility issue. It is not reasonable to even entertain a GET increase; they shouldn’t anticipate it,” said Luke.

House majority leader, Rep. Scott Saiki, added that last year’s tax extension already had a built-in cushion, giving the city a bit more than was requested.

“We have already given the city leeway,” Saiki said, telling Caldwell to both get involved and take responsibility for rail.

“This is not a decision to be made by volunteers, like the HART board; it is up to elected officials like the mayor and Council,” Saiki said.

Meanwhile, Hanabusa is expected to leave the HART board for her campaign for Congress — leaving Caldwell and company their own Ice Bucket Challenge.

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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.