The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation has more good news about tax revenues today. It’s again surpassed its projections for collections.

The General Excise Tax surcharge generated $49.02 million for the three-month period from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, about $12 million more than the $36.94 million projected in the financial plan.

Reaction, from a HART press release:

“The additional surcharge revenue is good news for the rail project,” said Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Interim Executive Director and CEO Toru Hamayasu. “This strong revenue pattern positions us well to bring the project in on time and on budget, and shows we will be able to pay for the project with the GET surcharge and federal funds.”

“HART has already collected about 25 percent of the GET revenues that is estimated within our Financial Plan,” said HART Finance Committee Chairman Don Horner. “We remain ahead of projected revenues. And, to date, HART has contracted 50 percent of our total construction costs and is $300 million below our planned expenses. HART remains on track in terms of both revenues and costs.”

HART has now collected a total of $810.4 million in GET surcharge revenue to date. The surcharge began in January 2007 and is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2022.

The projections themselves have changed since 2007. When Civil Beat evaluated the August 2009 financial plan, we found that projections for tax revenues were optimistic.