I respect your point of view on not giving the County more taxing authority....see how they are handling the authority they have now and that pretty much ends that discussion. But right now the way it is structured, no one is directly responsible for any of this. The City Council members bounce this to the Legislature saying "mommy may I", the Legislature goes through their punch and judy show, give the authorization anyway and are automatically inoculated from the wrath of the voters, thus a smooth reelection into office. 
No one is responsible, and no one gets hurt at the end. And this is a project that, with the amount of noise that has been created and the heartburn given to the residents of Honolulu, elected officials need to feel the heat of this.