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With about six weeks to go to finish the budget, there are big decisions before the Honolulu City Council.

A special budget meeting is on the calendar for this morning, and committee meetings — including discussion that’s sure to be passionate as ever — will follow next week.

Civil Beat is reporting from the inside.

Capitol Budget — With Reinstated Roads Money — One Step From Passing

4:20 p.m.
City Council members advanced their version of the city’s capitol budget for next year, including tens of millions of dollars reinstated for roads rehabilitation. The inclusion of those funds amounts to a 6 percent increase to the capital budget, and led Council member Breene Harimoto — the lone dissenter — to vote against the measure.

“Although we say we’re adding just a few dollars, 6 percent, we need to really be thinking about the longterm effectiveness,” Harimoto said. “We’re going to be saddling our future generations with a lot of increased debt service.”

Harimoto’s reasoning mirrors the Carlisle administration’s explanation for cutting the roads money in the first place. But other City Council members were undeterred by the prospect of longterm debt. The council’s version of the capitol budget includes $77 million for roads over a two-year period, consistent with the funding allocated two years ago.

“The $77 million is not even enough,” said City Council member Romy Cachola. “When we cut back the funding below $77 million, a lot of people look at the road condition and they say, ‘What is happening?’ If it puts pressure on our debt service, so be it.”

Other council members who voiced their support for increased roads spending: Tom Berg, Stanley Chang and Ernie Martin. But Martin, the Budget Committee chairman, also acknowledged it would be nice to keep costs down in the interest of reducing debt service.

“If I could have sharpened by knife a little sharper, I would have cut more,” Martin said.

Testimony: Public Deserves Answers on City Overtime Increases

3:07 p.m.
Civil Beat’s struggle to get details about a 49 percent hike in overtime pay at the city’s Enterprise Services Department resonated with one regular testifier at Honolulu Hale.

Natalie Iwasa, the only member of the public to come before the council on budget matters, said she was distressed to read that Enterprise Services said it would cost $665 for Civil Beat to inspect records detailing how much individual workers were paid in overtime. City Managing Director Doug Chin defended that price estimate in a response to Civil Beat’s inquiries.

“I’ve worked with the city in trying to get information,” Iwasa said to the Budget Committee. “If they don’t want me to get information they tell me I have to pay for it and they make the fee really high… I’m concerned, not only because they won’t provide the information readily, but why would it take so long to get that information. Is there a problem with management and efficiency?”

Iwasa said it’s up to the council to provide answers, especially when city officials ostensibly block access to public records. We agree!

Union Talks ‘Ongoing,’ Budget Director Says

2:45 p.m.
While HGEA members voted to ratify a new contract with the government. But what about the police union, the fire fighters union and UPW? That was the question City Council member Ann Kobayashi had for Budget Director Mike Hansen in a special Budget Committee meeting this afternoon.

“They’re ongoing,” Hansen said. “I believe that the push is to try to get them done as soon as we can, ideally before the end of this fiscal year.”

Honolulu To Get $1.1 Million Boost

2:42 p.m.
The U.S. Labor Department is giving $1.1 million to the City and County of Honolulu, to bolster programs designed to help young people earn high-school equivalency while also getting job training.

Sen. Daniel Inouye‘s office announced the YouthBuild grant, and issued this statement from the senator:

“The path to an education and eventual employment can go in many directions and not all of them are traditional. Unfortunately, the unpredictable nature of life can pull kids out of school and saddle them with real responsibilities that do not allow them to finish high school. We must do everything we can to ensure these students are educated and employed so they can succeed and provide for themselves, their families, and the community.”

Council Begrudgingly Advances Property Tax Hike

12:27 p.m.
City Council member Ann Kobayashi says she wants Mayor Peter Carlisle‘s administration to know that she’s aware he’s trying to hike property taxes.

The Carlisle administration has characterized its approach to property taxes as a result of the collapse of two previously-distinct tax rates. Carlisle proposed a single tax rate for residential property — $3.50 per $1,000 of property value, up from $3.42 for resident homeowners and down from $3.58 for non-occupant homeowners.

“The administration doesn’t like to say there is a tax increase,” Kobayashi said. “I want them to know that we can see that it is a tax increase, even though they don’t want to say it.”

From his seat in the front row of the committee room, Managing Director Doug Chin nodded as Kobayashi spoke. Despite voicing complaints, City Council members voted to advance the hike.

Read how Carlisle explained his proposal in his interview with Civil Beat last month.

Council Members Advance Bill That Would Undermine Bill Passed Last Week

12:04 p.m.
City Council members in the Budget Committee this morning advanced , which would offer a gradual reduction to a recycling subsidy that they voted to eliminate all together just last week.

Bill 36 would slash the current 80 percent discount on so-called tipping fees to 40 percent next year, and to 20 percent in subsequent years. City Environmental Services Director Tim Steinberger says he would prefer to stick with Bill 47, which would end the subsidy immediately, and is already on the mayor’s desk to be signed into law.

“We realize that the recycling industry is a very vibrant industry,” Steinberger said. “It is a money-making industry. There comes a time when you can no longer hold your teenage son’s hand to cross the street like you did when he was a five-year-old.”

Of the council members present, only Breene Harimoto and Tom Berg appeared to agree with Steinberger.

“I think perhaps trying to find a win-win solution is creating some difficulty in that we’re compromising perhaps too much in what may be good public policy,” Harimoto said. “So I’m voting no.”

Ultimately, council members advanced Bill 36, which still needs approval from the full City Council before it can become law. The company that benefits most from the current subsidy, Schnitzer Steel, has testified in support of that bill.

“I have several reasons that I oppose both measures (Bill 36 and Bill 37), and fully supported bill 47,” said Natalie Iwasa, a public testifier who often weighs in on proposed legislation. “We’re motivating our recyclers right now to dump their residue. Why? Why are we doing that?”

Read more about how the City Council got to this point, including our coverage of last week.

Honolulu Elephants Will Have More Room to Roam by End of Year

9:47 a.m.
After years of delays, Enterprise Services Director Sid Quintal says the elephants at the Honolulu Zoo will move into their new enclosure by the end of the year.

“At the present time, we’re looking some time in November (or) December,” Quintal told City Council Budget Chairman Ernie Martin in a special Budget Committee meeting this morning.

The zoo’s two Indian elephants, Mari and Vaigai will move from a habitat that’s about 6,000 square feet to one that’s six times that size.

The Honolulu Zoo has repeatedly made a list of , compiled by the nonprofit .

“A miserly ‘expansion’ that would give Mari and Vaigai less than an acre of space – though elephants naturally walk tens of miles daily – simply fails the test,” the group wrote in a statement about its list of worst zoos.

Read the .

HART Orientation Not Yet Scheduled

9:33 a.m.
City rail planners have repeatedly said that members of the public will have the opportunity to track HART during the transition until it officially takes over the rail project on July 1.

Some HART board members told Civil Beat they want to wait until those meetings begin to talk at length about their new roles. So when will these orientation meetings get going?

“There will be informational orientation sessions for the HART board, but none of the meetings have been scheduled yet,” City Transportation Director Wayne Yoshioka wrote in an email. “My understanding is that these meetings will be open to the public.”

Special Budget Meeting for City Council

7:01 a.m.
City Council members are gathering for a special budget meeting at Honolulu Hale this morning. Items on include:

• A bill that would allow for a phased approach — rather than immediate elimination — to the end of a subsidy that benefits recycling companies
• Establishing fees for the use of campsites
• Increasing fees for the use of city golf courses
• Next year’s legislative budget
• Next year’s operating budget
• Next year’s capital budget
• The issuance and sale of bonds related to rail
• The budgets for a new transit agency

Read Previous Editions of Inside Honolulu

May 16, 2011: Did police chief’s son get preferential treatment? Honolulu Zoo rhino dies; Police officers to walk for slain colleagues.

May 13, 2011: California judge assigned to rail case; City winds down busy week on furlough day.

May 12, 2011: City Council member Romy Cachola learns new slang; Brookings Institute lauds Honolulu mass transit; Long-awaited rail lawsuit filed in federal court; City Council members vet new rail financial plan.

May 11, 2011: Council advances rail bond bill; City Council Chairman Nestor Garcia waiting for word on ethics investigation; Council advances fireworks storage bill; Council scraps scrap-yard subsidy, kind of; Rail lawsuit to be filed soon.

May 10, 2011 Council member Tom Berg wants to move Honolulu Zoo into Diamond Head crater; Council to consider banning some cell phone use for pedestrians.

May 9, 2011: After heavy rains, Waimanalo Gulch gets extension; What happens in Copenhagen, stays in Copenhagen?; Feds monitoring city’s use of housing money.

May 6, 2011: Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle says Koolau Loa plan keeps “country country,” too; City Council’s Tulsi Gabbard gets promoted.

May 5, 2011: Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle heads to sunny East Lansing, Mich.; Emergency Management Deputy Peter Hirai clears up rumor about Waikiki sirens; Double the turnout so far in Neighborhood Board elections.

May 4, 2011: City Council advances HART budgets, measure to float rail bonds; Romy Cachola irked that no Filipinos appointed to HART; Mayor would likely support end to recycling subsidy.

May 3, 2011: Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle signed into law new North Shore plan; City Planning and Permitting Director David Tanoue questions move to turn shipping containers into homes; Environmental group raises concerns about trees along rail route.

May 2, 2011: City Council member Stanley Chang takes on managing director; Ann Kobayashi defends yelling at testifier; Romy Cachola calls testifier “stupid;” Tom Berg proposes horse racetrack for Kapiolani Park; Bill to eliminate scrap yard subsidy advances; Council member miffed that rail leaders skipped special council meeting.