Fact-Checking Rail’s 2 Financial Analyses
Last week, as one of her final acts as Hawaii’s governor, Linda Lingle released an independent review of the city’s financial plan for its massive rail project. Mayor Peter Carlisle blasted it as “shoddy” work, questioning the integrity of the consultants who worked on it.
She said, he said.
But buried somewhere in these detailed, nuanced, lengthy and sometimes-boring documents — far away from the politicians’ soundbites — lies the truth. Are the city’s projections overly rosy? Is the consultant trying to kill the project?
The real answer might be somewhere in between. So Civil Beat is delving into the numbers. And asking for your help in doing so.
A cursory review of the 116-page report reveals four key areas where analysis by consultants and differs from the city’s model, produced by in May 2009. Both documents are viewable below.
They are:
- A decrease in General Excise Tax surcharge revenue of more than $800 million;
- An increase of some $340 million in operating expenses due to an alleged miscalculation of bus layover time;
- The loss of more than $250 million in bus discretionary federal grants; and
- An increase of more than $225 million in construction costs.
The work is just beginning, and we hope to have answers in coming days. If you have expertise on any of the issues above or think there are key differences we missed, please add your thoughts in the comments.
