Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell was at the State Capitol today fighting to keep tourism dollars in the city’s coffers.

He testified on Senate Bill 1194, which would cut into the share of Transient Accommodation Tax (TAT) that Honolulu receives.

Caldwell said that since Honolulu generates about 80 percent of the total TAT tax collected — $257.2 million of $323.9 million in Fiscal Year 2012 —that the city should be able to hold onto its fair share.

In FY 2012, he said the city spent $74.1 million on visitor industry services, such as public safety, golf courses and the zoo, but only collected $41 million in TAT.

Caldwell also testified on SB 571, which is related to the 0.5 percent surcharge on the General Excise Tax for the Honolulu rail project.

He wants to make sure the city gets “timely and accurate payments” of the GET.

SB 571 changes how much the state charges to collect the GET from 10 percent of all proceeds to an unspecified percentage that would be reimbursed for the work.

According to Caldwell’s testimony, the state took $21.2 million of the GET surcharge in 2012. That’s almost the same amount as the Hawaii Department of Taxation’s entire operational budget.

Caldwell outlined his plans to protect the city’s cash at the beginning of this year’s legislative session. You can read more about it here.

—Nick Grube