The Hawaii County Council, with very little comment, made quick work Tuesday unanimously passing a $99.75 million bond issue requested by Mayor Billy Kenoi.
The Hawaii County Council, with very little comment, made quick work Tuesday unanimously passing a $99.75 million bond issue requested by Mayor Billy Kenoi.
The bond issue, Kenoi’s largest request yet, will go for a multitude of county projects in all nine council districts. Kenoi, who is term-limited after December 2016, said this will be the last borrowing request of his administration.
Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille questioned how the projects on the list were selected, saying there should have been more consultation with the Community Development Plan committees. She noted there were South Kohala projects on the list but none for North Kohala.
Finance Director Deanna Sako said each county department selected projects that were “ready to go.” She said some other projects already were covered under prior bond issues, adding the CDP committees do contact her office requesting projects.
Hilo Councilman Aaron Chung was concerned affordable housing projects accounted for just $2.5 million of the almost $100 million being borrowed. He prepared an amendment adding another $2 million for homeless programs, but decided not to introduce it after talking with Kenoi.
“They’ve assured me they have enough resources to do this if and when it does develop,” Chung said.
Of the bond issue, slightly more than half, $50 million, will go for 18 projects for the Department of Parks and Recreation, with new facilities ranging from the Waimea District Park to a community park in Hawaiian Paradise Park to improvements to tennis courts, the Hilo Municipal Golf Course clubhouse and the Hilo Drag Strip.
Another $20 million would be spent on 12 Public Works improvement projects, including Mamalahoa Highway, Ane Keohokalole Highway, Kilauea-Keawe street resurfacing, Komohana Street, Waikoloa shoulder widening and more.
The $10 million for six Department of Environmental Management projects would focus on the Hilo sewer outfall repair, Kealakehe effluent reuse, various other wastewater projects and recycling project improvements.
Fire Department funding of $9 million would include the Haihai station and the Waimea volunteer fire station. Mass Transit funding of $5,000 would build bus shelters and create a master plan for islandwide bus routes.
Radio tower repairs for Civil Defense, $1 million to design an office for the county prosecutor at the West Hawaii Civic Center and micro housing and other affordable housing initiatives round out the list.
The county will pay another $750,000 on top of the bond issue for the cost of issuing the bonds.
The county’s annual debt service — how much interest and principal it pays annually on its borrowing — is currently 7.8 percent of expenditures. That figure would go up to 13.2 percent if all the borrowing currently authorized by the council were issued. It would reach 13.8 percent once the proposed bonds are authorized and issued.
The Government Finance Officers Association recommends a ceiling of 15 percent.
Total bonded indebtedness for the county now stands at $357.6 million not counting the new bond issue. The full faith and credit of the taxpayer is pledged under general obligation, or G.O., bonds compared to other types of bonds that rely on revenues from services or special districts, for example.
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.