The Hawaii Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit challenging the state’s practice of “skimming” 10 percent of the excise tax surcharge set aside for the rail project and depositing the money into the state treasury.

The Tax Foundation of Hawaii sued the state in 2015, alleging that the state has far more of the revenue from the half-percent excise tax surcharge for rail than was necessary to cover the state’s administrative costs for collecting the tax.

To date the state has “skimmed” more than $220 million from the excise tax surcharge, which is considerably more than it cost the state to collect the tax on behalf of the city, according to Tom Yamachika, president of the Tax Foundation.

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that at the time the law was written, it was uncertain how much the administrative costs to the state would be. It was reasonable for the state to estimate those costs would be 10 percent of the total tax collected from the surcharge, according to the decision.

The decision sends the case back to a lower court with instructions to decide the case in the state’s favor. However, lawmakers have already taken steps to address the concerns raised by the Tax Foundation.

The state Legislature in 2017 lowered the amount the state takes from the surcharge to cover its administrative expenses to 1 percent from 10 percent. Yamachika said the Tax Foundation’s lawsuit was key to convincing lawmakers to reduce the state’s share of the surcharge revenue.