West Maui Taxpayers Association
  • HOME
  • Olowalu Fire Station
  • WMTAPAC22
  • Affordable Housing
  • West Maui Lifesavers
  • Wall of Honor
  • Support WMTA
    • Membership - One Time Payment
    • Membership - Recurring Payment
    • Donations
    • Wills & Trusts
    • Charity Walk
  • Newsletter
  • Emergency Planning
  • News Blog
  • About Us
    • Goals & Objectives
    • Accomplishments
    • Board of Directors
    • WMTA vs WMIF
  • Contact
  • Subscribe

Squirreling Away Money at the Dept. of Transportation

2/18/2019

0 Comments

 
WMTA Shares these commentaries, without taking a position unless otherwise noted, to bring information to our readers
​To view the archives of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii's commentary click here.
 ​​​​​​​
 
Weekly Commentary

For the Week of February 18, 2019

Squirreling Away Money at the Dept. of Transportation
By Tom Yamachika, President
 
 
Well, it looks like the Hawaii State Watch Doggie has woken up from his nap. 

A:  Hey!  Keeping watch is hard work!

Q:  Undoubtedly.  So what are you reading there?  It looks like an Auditor’s report — “Review of Special Funds, Revolving Funds, Trust Funds, and Trust Accounts of the Department of Transportation.”

A:  Oh, yes. It’s an outrage. 

Q:  What’s the problem?

A:  Well, you know that the DOT is telling the Legislature to raise taxes.  Fuel tax, vehicle weight tax, registration fees.  Taxes, taxes, taxes. 

Q:  So how are they different from any other government agency?

A:  The auditor found that they have lots of money lying around. More than $120 million in accounts that haven’t been even touched for five years. 

Q:  And they’re asking for more. 

A:  And that’s not all.  A few years ago, the Feds got mad at them because they had close to a billion dollars in unused federal money.  The Feds gave us money to work on roads and bridges, and it wasn’t getting spent, so they were saying, “Why should we give you more money if you can’t spend what you have?”

Q:  But they have been working the backlog down over the years. 

A:  Come on. More than a hundred million that hasn’t been touched for years?  Makes me want to bite someone. 

Q:  Jeez!  Don’t look at me so intensely when you’re saying that!
But didn’t they say that most of the money is a reserve that they have to keep around for their airport bonds?

A:  Hey, if the bond agreement requires millions to be held in reserve, DOT should have been able to point to the part of the bond agreement saying that. Did they? No!  And there’s more.

Q: There’s more?

A: There’s a law that says that DOT has to report all of their funds to the Legislature.  They’re not supposed to squirrel away their money.

Q: So how much did they fail to report?  Enough to buy a few bags of kibble?

A: More than $120 million.

Q: Different from the $120 million that they found lying around?

A: There’s some overlap, but mostly in addition to the idle $120 million.

Q: Did DOT say why those accounts weren’t reported to the Legislature?

A: Airports Division said that the Airports account the Auditor identified had no money in it anyway and they forgot to report it.  The other divisions didn’t say anything.

Q: Not even “Oops,” eh?  But they did report some of their accounts to the Legislature, right?

A: Yes, but not accurately.  The Auditor found that Highways Division’s fund reporting was inconsistent and sometimes inaccurate.  For example, a fund reported as “Revolving & OHA” was actually five different funds, and none of them were related to OHA.

Q: Oh, man.  Whatever can we do about that?

A: I’m going to bite someone on the schnozzola.

Q: If you can reach it, that is.  You’re only a 7-pound doggie.

A: Details.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    RSS Feed


    If you wish to further discuss blog posts, please contat our office directly or contact us via Contact page.

    Categories

    All
    Affordable Housing & Homelessness
    Board
    Capital Improvements
    Charity Walk
    Commentaries
    Community Events
    Community Resources
    CON
    COVID 19
    Educational
    Emergency Planning
    Health & Safety
    HHARP
    Housing
    Infrastructure In West Maui
    In The News
    Kapalua Airport Runway Lights
    Kapalua Coastal Trail
    Lahaina Bypass
    Legislature Newsletters
    LLC
    Long Range Transportation Plan 2040
    Long-Range Transportation Plan 2040
    Makila
    MAUI CANCER CENTER
    Maui Cancer Center Llc
    Maui County
    Maui County Budget
    Maui County Dept Of Environmental Management
    Maui County - Dept Of Water
    Maui Destination Management Plan
    Press
    Public Safety In West Maui
    Real Property Tax
    Recycling Info
    TAT
    Tax
    Tourism
    Traffic & Roadways
    Transportation
    Video
    Vote
    Voting
    West Maui Community Plan
    West Maui Hospital
    West Maui Skate Park
    WMTA Annual Meeting
    WMTA Breakfast Events
    WMTA Candidates Night
    WMTA Disaster Preparedness
    WMTA Fundraisers
    WMTA Hot Topics
    Wmta Hot Topics Replay
    WMTA Membership
    WMTA PAC
    WMTA Sunset Sail
    WMTA Whale Watch

Quick Links: 

Home

News

About Us

Wall of Honor

Newsletter

Support WMTA
Emergency Planning

Contact

Copyright © 2021
Photo used under Creative Commons from wolfsavard
  • HOME
  • Olowalu Fire Station
  • WMTAPAC22
  • Affordable Housing
  • West Maui Lifesavers
  • Wall of Honor
  • Support WMTA
    • Membership - One Time Payment
    • Membership - Recurring Payment
    • Donations
    • Wills & Trusts
    • Charity Walk
  • Newsletter
  • Emergency Planning
  • News Blog
  • About Us
    • Goals & Objectives
    • Accomplishments
    • Board of Directors
    • WMTA vs WMIF
  • Contact
  • Subscribe