 But in order to complete the construction of rail, clearly what's going to have to happen is that the legislature is going to have to authorize the counties to be able to extend that surcharge. So that issue is presently before the state legislature, and ultimately the determination as to how much of the rail project we'll be able to construct will rest with the legislature in terms of whether or not they want to allow the City and County of Honolulu to extend the surcharge. Well what about the property tax and how does that fit into all of this? Well we have an ordinance in place that was adopted by the City Council a number of years ago which prohibits the use of real property tax revenues to cover the construction costs for rail. So that prohibition is still in place. I have made clear as the Council Chair to my former colleagues at the state legislature that we do not want to tap into real property tax revenues to finance the construction costs for rail. The concern of Council members is the fact that residents and businesses are having a tough enough time as it is coping with high real estate costs. So generally speaking the Council has tried to hold a line in regards to any real property tax increases and we will continue to do so with respect to rail and other issues going forward. Now I saw this new piece about the rail coming in Middle Street and then going to ground level. Is that a real proposition? No I don't think so. You know it's an issue that was discussed previously by the Council before I came on board at a time when the Council needed to decide whether they wanted to proceed with a real project and if so what kind of project. And in the course of those discussions the Council did consider whether or not a portion of the rail line should be at grade as opposed to a completely elevated system which is what we have in place right now. So that decision was made by the Council many years ago. In addition Hart has made very clear that given the fact that the project has come along so far that to change courses at this point would be very costly and would result in substantial delays in terms of the need to do new environmental impact statements or environmental assessments. There would be significant costs in regards to reconfiguring or changing the design of the system so you know I mean it's been discussed but I think at this point in time it may be very difficult to change courses in that regard. With all of the million dollar properties in Cacaaco and along the way how are you going to run a trail through their view plane? Well you know that's already been planned you know and in terms of the environmental assessments and environmental impact statements that were done you know those kinds of issues were already considered but the fact is that the city's assigned a full funding grant agreement with the FDA in which they agreed to build a 20 mile 21 station system that basically is the configuration that we have funded and the legislature is considering funding in the future so that is a part of the agreement and but again ultimately the issue is the financing of it rests with the legislature and they need to decide that before the end of the legislative session. Now I have been out your area and Hawaii as a tourist destination sells beauty. That rail is not beauty it takes away from the beauty of Waipahu those old towns and that's what you're going to bring into the city. That's ugly. Okay okay we've heard those kinds of criticisms but you know you look at the the drawbacks of some people view it and then you look at the pluses I can tell you for the people that I represent in West Oahu and the leeward Oahu areas, central Oahu areas where the motorists have to deal with the worst traffic congestion on this island and really some of the worst congestion in the country that many support this system because they believe that it will help to alleviate some of the congestion that we see on our roadways and you know we've been talking about TOD and the fact that it creates potential opportunities for affordable housing development well as one as the council chair and I believe I speak for the other council members if rail is going to proceed then we want to make sure that the developers along the rail lines will in fact deliver an affordable housing so those are some additional potential opportunities that we see up through the construction of rail. I'm just saying that the golden goose is tourism and when you change the look of the beauty of this island is what we sell how are you going to sell to tourists? Well I think many of the tourists are going to be beneficiaries of the system you know other jurisdictions have indicated have shown that you know visitors comprise a significant ridership and they'll benefit from it I think in regards to the current route you know for the most part it's going through existing commercial and business areas and so again the decision in regards to the alignment was made by the council a number of years ago we have a full funding grant agreement that we entered into with the FDA in discussions with the FDA they've made very clear that they consider that to be a binding agreement and I think in terms of being able to reverse courses now I think that would be very difficult. I'm just afraid we're killing the golden goose.