The good news for drivers is that higher rates for vehicle weight taxes and vehicle registration fees that were expected to kick in July 1 across the islands won’t be implemented until mid-September, giving drivers a one-time, six-week reprieve.

"Swee-eeeet," Dan Goodwin, a downtown construction worker, said Tuesday at Kalihi Satellite City Hall where he paid considerably less than what he would have been charged. The thought of avoiding higher fees made Goodwin repeatedly stretch out the normally one-syllable word. "Swee-eeeet."

In May, Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed a bill into law that increases the annual vehicle registration fee to $45 from $25 effective July 1. The bill also increases the weight tax for all vehicles — meaning a typical Honda Civic owner will pay $46.76 more for the 2,672-pound car’s annual sticker.

But the city’s Department of Information Technology, which runs the vehicle registration system for all counties, needed time to reprogram its computers to accommodate the additional fees. The task of reprograming the system gave vehicle owners until mid-September before the higher costs go into effect, said Dennis Kamimura, Honolulu’s licensing administrator.

"Everybody registering a vehicle this week is still at the old rates," Kamimura said. "Everyone registering beginning Aug. 15, 16, 17 will have the new rates."

The higher rates affect every vehicle owner with an Nov. 1 or later registration, Kamimura said.

There is no way drivers with an Nov. 1 deadline or later can pay before mid-September to avoid the higher rates because the registration window for them does not open until 45 days before their deadline, Kamimura said.

It cost Goodwin $386.05 in late penalties, taxes and fees to register his 2010 Chevrolet Colorado at the Kalihi Satellite City Hall on Tuesday. But the price tag would have been much higher for Goodwin’s 4,044-pound Colorado had increased weight taxes and registration fees gone into effect on July 1, as expected.

"Swee-eeeet," Goodwin repeated.

Dave Larsen of Kailua paid $246.75 in late fees and other costs on Tuesday to register his wife’s 2001 Toyota Camry, which had an expired registration. The sting of the $246.75 cost was lessened by a bit of good news when Larsen paid his fees and heard he’d escaped the increase.

"The woman at the counter said I was lucky because the fees are about to go up," Larsen said. "Hey, I guess I hit the jackpot today."

Legislators approved raising the weight tax to generate an additional $32.9 million a year for the state Department of Transportation’s special maintenance fund that’s used to repair and maintain potholes, crumbling bridges, lighting, landscaping and road signs on state highways across the islands, said DOT spokesman Dan Meisenzahl.

The combination of additional weight taxes and $22.9 million in increased registration fees would total nearly $56 million per year.

Meisenzahl could not immediately provide an estimate of how much in additional fees would have been collected if the rates went into effect July 1.

In anticipation that county officials would not begin collecting the higher fees on July 1, Meisenzahl said the DOT began spending less money from its maintenance and repair fund to make up the difference.

DOT officials pushed for the registration and weight tax increases because they need $86 million annually to keep up with highway repairs and maintenance, Meisenzahl said.

The combination of reduced spending and new calculations based on the delay means the DOT projects the higher fees will add $49 million into the highway fund through June 30 — for a projected balance of $85 million, or $1 million short of the DOT’s annual goal.

"We knew all along it was a moving target, and we anticipated there would be some delays," Meisenzahl said. "So we reduced spending and made adjustments to our projections.

"It is a nationwide phenomenon that our infrastructure needs to be improved," Meisenzahl said. "But the DOT gets no money from the state general fund. All of our highway funds come from fees."

The highway maintenance fund had regularly been tapped to balance the state’s budgets from governors going back to Linda Lingle and Ben Cayetano, Meisenzahl said.

"We need $86 million to adequately sustain the fund, but as of June 30, 2010, there was only $32 million," Meisenzahl said. "We were starting to get down to very low levels, and if we had not raised the fees, the fund would have gone down to $27 million in the fiscal year that just began."

The idea behind the increases seemed logical to Brandon Barques of Kalihi on Tuesday as he paid $10 to transfer ownership of a 1995 Honda Civic to him.

But the reality will hit Barques next month when he has to register the Civic along with his other vehicle, a 1996 Ford Explorer.

With a weight of 4,255 pounds, the heft of the Explorer will nearly double the weight tax for Barques, a construction worker with a 4-year-old daughter.

"That one’s heavy so it’s going to cost me," Barques said. "When everything’s going up, it just takes food off the table."

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Correction: This story has been updated to reflect a later start time for the new fees. Based on information provided by the city Tuesday, the original version of the story reported that the higher fees will be in effect starting Monday for vehicles with an Oct. 1 or later registration date.