This year’s 10 million visitors to Hawaii include a group not in search of sun and mai tais, but money.

Recently a contingent from the Federal Transit Administration came out to tell city officials that Honolulu has to pay more now to build the city’s rail project, if they want to get the long- promised $744 million remainder in federal funding.

The details were included in a startling article by reporter Kevin Dayton in last week’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Dayton writes that “Mayor Kirk Caldwell … met with FTA officials twice last week and spent more than an hour during one of the those meetings trying to convince them there is no need for the city to frontload its contribution to the cost of rail construction.”

In essence they said, no deal, show us the money, or at least point to the page on next year’s budget showing where the city will get the construction money.

This is money just to build rail, money that Caldwell and others had promised would come exclusively from the general excise tax increase. That pledge is apparently meaningless, because the city is now looking to raid the city treasury for the money.

In fact, the exclusive Star-Advertiser report said that Joey Manahan, Council Budget Committee chairman, wants to amend next year’s proposed construction budget to snag a new $25 million in borrowed funds for rail construction.

Caldwell said that rail officials “feel that they don’t need the money now.”

He asked rhetorically, in a statement that is destined to become part of his legacy: “So, what’s it mean? We pay more now and pay less later.”

Rail’s critics and doubters don’t believe that for a minute.

Randy Roth, a retired law professor who has participated in several actions to stop the project, warned that taxpayers have not really started to pay for the overbudget $9.2 billion project.

“The city will be spending billions of dollars on rail in future years, which means property taxes will have to be increased dramatically because of rail,” Roth said in an interview with me.

What is so worrisome is that, as the state auditor noted, the city has consistently shown that the project is marked by “overpromising” and “under-delivering.”

“The city’s share of total construction costs will be relatively small,” Roth said, although pointing out that “it’s a big deal politically because it spotlights past deception and can’t be hidden from taxpayers.”

The big deal is not building the 20-mile transit project; it is paying for the people to run it, finding the money to keep it in decent, safe shape and eventually paying more to renovate and repair it.

“Just imagine what it will be like when city officials are forced to discuss funding for the huge amounts required each year. … These numbers will dwarf the ones discussed (now).”

At the same time, a criminal federal grand jury continues to investigate the project for what could be crimes and not just budget- busting ineptitude.

Honolulu’s train may be the train no one wants to catch.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.