§279A-7 Statewide transportation council; responsibilities. In addition to its responsibility for coordinating the development of a statewide transportation plan, the council shall be responsible for the following functions:

(1) The council shall be responsible for making recommendations on projects for submission to the legislature which involve solely and exclusively either state highways, harbors and water-borne transit, and airports and air transportation; solely and exclusively state funds; or solely state lands. All other projects for submission to the legislature, including intra- county mass transit projects, shall be the responsibility of the counties.

(2) In respect to transportation projects for which the counties are responsible for planning and approval prior to submission to the legislature, the council shall review such projects and prepare comments for the legislature regarding:

(A) The degree to which an intra-island transportation project interfaces efficiently with existing proposed inter-island transportation system; and

(B) The relationship between the specific projects' possible requirements for state financial assistance and projections as to the State's total potential financial commitments required for development of a statewide transportation system.

(3) Counties which do not have metropolitan planning organizations may request from the council, and the council shall provide, technical assistance to the counties in the preparation of their respective county transportation plans as components of the statewide transportation planning process. The amounts of technical assistance to be provided hereunder are within the discretion of the chairperson who shall consider in making the chairperson's determinations the magnitude of the problems which exist in the requesting counties, the availability of local resources, the degree to which they are cooperatively participating in the statewide planning process and the adequacy of the council's budget considering the financial requirements of overall council operations. [L 1975, c 179, §7; gen ch 1985; am L 1991, c 35, §1; gen ch 1993]