Quote:
Originally Posted by DePaul Bunyan
the upkeep and maintenance costs are not insignificant and will not take away from what is already spent on roads.
I know this forum is full of starry-eyed urbanists who are happy to overlook and dismiss these borderline criminal cost overruns, delays, and downright lies to get taxpayers on the hook in order to enrich a few politically-connected contractors, consultants, and unions, but this stuff matters to voters and taxpayers. You can't keep lying to people and shaking them down when it comes to infrastructure.
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Regarding operations and maintenance costs, it’s spelled out in rail’s June 2022 “recovery plan,” which the FTA believed and approved, amazingly enough. It starts at $96 million in FY 23, and steadily increases to $163 million in FY 34. It’s in Table G-1 of the recovery plan if anyone wants to see it.
Several years ago the city lowered their targeted farebox recovery ratio from 27-33% to 25-30%. They also admitted that it will likely be less than 25%, meaning the subsidy will be in excess of 75%. The .5% GET surcharge can only be used for construction costs and sunsets in 2030, so the only legally available mechanism we have to pay for the subsidy is property taxes.
The US attorneys for Hawaii issued three or four subpoenas to hart in 2019 “requesting” information. I don’t know what the status is, but I hope the investigation is continuing and will result in some indictments and convictions.