Tom Yamachika: Squirreling Away Money At The DOT
The state agency wants to raise fees and taxes even as if fails to spend what it already has.
Well, it looks like the Hawaii State Watch Doggie has woken up from his nap.
A:聽Hey! Keeping watch is hard work!
Q:聽Undoubtedly. So what are you reading there? It looks like an Auditor鈥檚 report聽鈥
A:聽Oh, yes. It鈥檚 an outrage.
Q:聽What鈥檚 the problem?
A:聽Well, you know that the DOT is telling the Legislature to raise taxes. Fuel tax, vehicle weight tax, registration fees. Taxes, taxes, taxes.
Q:聽So how are they different from any other government agency?
A:聽The auditor found that they have lots of money lying around. More than $120 million in accounts that haven鈥檛 been even touched for five years.
Q:聽And they鈥檙e asking for more.
A: And that鈥檚 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鈥檛 getting spent, so they were saying, 鈥淲hy should we give you more money if you can鈥檛 spend what you have?鈥
Q: But they have been working the backlog down over the years.
A: Come on. More than a hundred million that hasn鈥檛 been touched for years? Makes me want to bite someone.
Q: Jeez! Don鈥檛 look at me so intensely when you鈥檙e saying that! But didn鈥檛 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鈥檚 more.
Q: There鈥檚 more?
A: There鈥檚 a law that says that DOT has to report all of their funds to the Legislature. They鈥檙e 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鈥檚 some overlap, but mostly in addition to the idle $120 million.
Q: Did DOT say why those accounts weren鈥檛 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鈥檛 say anything.
Q: Not even 鈥淥ops,鈥 eh? But they did report some of their accounts to the Legislature, right?
A: Yes, but not accurately. The auditor found that Highways Division鈥檚 fund reporting was inconsistent and sometimes inaccurate. For example, a fund reported as 鈥淩evolving & OHA鈥 was actually five different funds, and none of them were related to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
Q: Oh, man. Whatever can we do about that?
A: I鈥檓 going to bite someone on the schnozzola.
Q: If you can reach it, that is. You鈥檙e only a 7-pound doggie.
A: Details.
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