State lawmakers have killed an attempt to balance the state budget by taking the counties' share of hotel room tax money, a move that would have brought the state $100 million annually.
Although the action means Maui County won't need to go without $18 million in transient accommodations tax revenue in fiscal 2010, Mayor Charmaine Tavares and Council Chairman Danny Mateo said that the $551.5 million county budget won't necessarily return to what it was before it was cut in anticipation of losing the revenue.
The Council Budget and Finance Committee will resume its discussion Monday on how to move forward, Mateo said.
That may mean reserving part of the hotel tax money in some kind of fund because state lawmakers told county officials that they may need to raid the source of income next year, Mateo said. The state is expecting to have $2 billion less in revenue over the upcoming two years.
"What a terrific, terrific job well done," Mateo said. "They made us worry, but they also gave us a fair warning it could return again."
Tavares said the priority for her now will be restoring the council's proposed cuts to environmental management services, such as landfill bulldozers, residential garbage bins, and staff.
Mateo said it's likely council members will also reconsider a decision to eliminate road resurfacing projects.
Tavares and Mateo made the trip to the Capitol on Friday, along with all of Hawaii's mayors, to lobby against House Bill 1744, which would have diverted hotel room tax money away from the counties and into state tax coffers.
The proposal to take away the counties' share of the transient accommodations tax died in conference committee Friday evening, according to state Sen. Shan Tsutsui's office. Neighbor Island lawmakers in the House-Senate conference committee held firm to their last-minute promises and deferred the room tax takeaway indefinitely.
Tsutsui, vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, was a member of the conference committee and had predicted that Neighbor Island legislators wouldn't support the bill.
"It's dead for at least this session," Tavares said by telephone Friday night. "I think it's great. We've been fighting for our TAT for months now, and we were all standing strong here because we care."
Earlier in the day, lawmakers voted to raise the transient accommodations tax from 7.25 to 9.25 percent. Republican Gov. Linda Lingle has said she will veto the measure, but Democrats are expected to attempt an override.
* Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@mauinews.com.
