As costs continue to climb, Honolulu rail remains by far the most expensive transit project per-capita being built in the U.S., a Honolulu Star-Advertiser analysis shows.

The 20-mile elevated, driverless rail system will now cost about $4,049 per each Oahu resident through the life of the project to complete, according to the latest budget projections and U.S. Census data.

The figure excludes an estimated 20 percent in tax contributions that visitors pay toward the project when they spend money on Oahu.

Out of the 20 other major mass-transit rail projects in the U.S. receiving federal funding, the Silicon Valley Berryessa Extension in San Jose, Calif., has the closest per-capita cost to Honolulu’s — at $732 per person, the most recent data show.

Meanwhile, among the country’s least expensive projects per-capita is an extension of Los Angeles’ Westside Purple line. It costs just $79 per each person in that metropolitan area, according to census data and the Federal Transit Administration’s 2016 budget.

The big gap between Honolulu’s per-capita price and that of everywhere else reflects the soaring costs to build here, coupled with Oahu’s relatively modest population.

Some studies show Honolulu as having the most expensive construction market in the country. But the island’s metropolitan population of fewer than 1 million people is smaller than any of the other 20 project locations. (Once again, San Jose came closest with the second-smallest population, at 1.9 million.)

Nonetheless, Hawaii’s capital city is shouldering one of the most expensive public transit projects being built in the U.S. right now, with a new estimated price tag of $6.57 billion.

Additionally, most of the other projects represent expansions or extensions of existing systems, while the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation is building a system from scratch.

The city was finally able to develop a new mass transit system after at least three other tries over several decades.

Don Horner, the former First Hawaiian Bank chairman who now is chairman of the HART board, said Friday that he doesn’t believe Honolulu’s per-capita average gives a clear enough picture of who’s actually shouldering most of the rail costs.

Many Honolulu households simply aren’t going to spend enough money each year to hit that per-capita general excise tax contribution of $4,000 to rail over the life of the project, he said.

"If you look at the average household income for Oahu, you would see the per-capita would be substantially below that number," Horner said Friday. "Therefore, a substantial portion of the GET is being paid by tourism, business and high-income consumers."

Victor Geminiani, executive director of the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, said that the GET funding rail is a regressive tax that burdens the island’s lower-income residents more heavily than its higher-wage earners. The 20 percent of the state’s population earning the least money pays about 13 cents of every dollar to GET, while the top 20 percent pays 7.5 cents, Geminiani said.

"The GET is very efficient and it collects a lot of money but it is entirely inequitable. It is not a fair way of collecting taxes," Geminiani said Wednesday. "We have loaded up our tax system. It’s a go-to vehicle for generating income."

Horner further said that the $4,049 per-capita figure assumes that the Honolulu City Council will approve a five-year, $1.5 billion rail tax extension to address the project’s budget deficit and complete the full 20 miles. Without that extension, HART won’t have the full $6.57 billion and would likely have to come up with an alternative, less-expensive way forward, he added.

That would certainly change the cost per-person, Horner said.

To calculate the latest per-capita costs for rail, the Star-Advertiser assumed that visitors pay 20 percent of the rail tax surcharge, based on separate calculations by the Tax Foundation of Hawaii. Horner said he believes the visitors’ contribution is closer to 25 percent.

Out of the current group of 21 major mass-transit rail projects receiving federal support, Honolulu rail is also taking in the smallest percentage of federal dollars relative to its total cost, at 24 percent, Federal Transit Administration data show.

Honolulu’s $1.55 billion in federal transit dollars represents more than any of the other projects received — but is still the smallest share of the overall project price tag. Before rail went over budget, the federal portion represented about 30 percent of the price tag. That percentage still represents one of the lowest shares of all rail projects.

Mike Formby, the city’s Department of Transportation Services director and a HART board member, said the city went through a complex and competitive evaluation process to get the dollars it did. Honolulu did "exceptionally well" in receiving $1.55 billion, he said.

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