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Hawaii’s four mayors and county councils are trying to do something they’ve never done: lobby the Legislature as one voice on whatever they can all agree on.

Representatives from the Hawaii State Association of Counties and Hawaii Council on Mayors took what some called a “historic” step toward that goal just by sitting down together Wednesday morning at Honolulu Hale. They spent nearly two hours searching for common ground on the general excise and transient accommodations taxes — two significant public-revenue generators that the state controls.

But there was nothing concrete to show for it other than a general agreement among most present that the counties must at a minimum protect their $93 million share of the TAT and they should ask for the power to levy the GET as they see fit up to a half-percent or so.

Big Island Mayor Billy Kenoi said he could see the two lobbying groups are nearing a consensus, but further talks are needed next month to hash out the finer points.

“The difference is rum-and-Coke or Malibu-and-Coke,” he said. “We close.”

HSAC President Mel Rapozo said time is running out to reach an agreement before the next legislative session starts in January.

But even if the counties manage to pull something together in the next couple of weeks, the effort could be all for naught.

Senate President Donna Mercado Kim told Civil Beat in an interview at her office Wednesday that at the end of the day it comes down to jurisdiction, compromise and what the state can afford.

“They can be very clear but that may not be what they’re going to get,” she said. “So if I was them, I’d be more realistic.”

Kim met with Maui officials several months ago and told them she was open to giving the counties the power to levy the GET a half-percent, but the counties would likely have to give up the TAT in return.

She said it seemed like a good deal in the long run because it would end the annual fight over the TAT and the counties would have a new taxing tool that the state couldn’t touch. But Kim said her counterpart in the House, Speaker Joe Souki, as well as the money committee chairs, Sen. David Ige and Rep. Sylvia Luke, were not on board with that proposal.

Neither are the counties if it involves losing any of the TAT, a 9.25 percent tax hotels charge guests. The mayors and council members maintain that the tax is money the counties are owed to offset the impact of the visitor industry on county services and infrastructure.

Kenoi used pidgin to drive home the point:

“Let’s track one visitor upon arrival. They land in Honolulu International; landing fee, State of Hawaii. They go, they jump in their rental car; vehicle rental car tax, State of Hawaii. They drive, check in to their hotel room; transient accommodations tax, State of Hawaii. Three times.

“But what do they then do? They drive on a county road, go to a county beach park, get in trouble north shore, call county lifeguard, maybe county ambulance, county police. They go back to hotel room, all shaken up, take shower, county water. Full of panic, use the toilet, county sewer. Throw away their clothes, bad memory, county solid waste.”

County officials said they are tired of begging to keep the hotel room taxes and having the state use it as a bargaining chip each year.

“Instead of trying to horse trade the TAT, I think we should take a very firm position that it’s not even on the table,” Kenoi said.

County leaders said state lawmakers have bulldozed their previous pleadings for bigger portions of the TAT as well as other requests in part by leveraging the discord among the mayors and councils.

Last year county officials asked the state to remove the temporary $93 million cap on the counties’ share of the TAT, but the Legislature made it permanent instead.

“We’re not going to be divided and conquered this year,” said Maui County Councilman Michael Victorino, who serves as HSAC treasurer.

Kim, who was a Honolulu City Council member for 14 years before she was elected to the Legislature, is more than familiar with the counties’ concerns.

The state gave the counties the power to levy property taxes in lieu of the GET, she said, adding that the neighbor island counties missed their opportunity to ask voters to let them impose a half-percent GET surcharge like Honolulu did for its rail project.

To top it off, she said the counties passed up her offer when she was Senate Ways and Means chair to let them each charge a sales tax of one or two percent.

“They were mum on it because they were afraid that if we gave them the sales tax we would take away the TAT tax,” Kim said. “If you’re the taxing authority, it’s always easier to go to someone else to get the money than you raising the taxes.”

Not all the council members want the GET though, partly for that very reason.

Kauai County Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura called the GET a regressive tax because everyone — rich or poor, tourist or local — has to pay the same rate. She favored a “portfolio of taxes” so the counties aren’t at the mercy of a single tax or two that may fluctuate wildly.

The discussion among the mayors and council members is set to continue Dec. 13.