A proposal to hire a private company to collect excise taxes on behalf of the city may make some pragmatic sense, but is ultimately a bad idea.

This would put one of the basic responsibilities of government into the hands of a (presumably) for-profit entity.

It also would add logistical confusion to a system that will be more complex once the city begins imposing its own version of what to date has been a state-only tax.

The idea surfaced because there are questions about how the city's half-percentage-point excise tax will be collected. The tax was authorized by the Legislature specifically to pay for a planned transit system for O'ahu.

But city officials said they did not have the resources or capability to collect the tax. The current plan would have the state collect the tax and then keep 10 percent of the take for administrative costs.

Under that plan, there are technical issues to be worked out. For instance, if a state-wide business pays its excise tax to the state, how will Ho-nolulu's share be apportioned?

But these complexities would not be eased by turning the entire process over to a private business. In fact, an additional layer of complexity might be generated since it is inconceivable that government tax authorities would not maintain some oversight of the collection process.

Far better to keep things as close to what they are today as possible. Have the state collect the tax and then pass on O'ahu's share for a reasonable administrative charge.