The Neighbor Island legislators had to walk a fine line.  The TAT increase was not popular back home and smacked of heavy handedness from the Honolulu guys.  We can argue till the cows come home who actually pays the TAT, but thats besides the point.  The Neighbor Island legislators know full well that taxes generated on Oahu flow to the neighbor islands.  Its a one way flow because Oahu has the biggest tax base.  Everyone on Oahu knows this (at least I think they know), but we understand its necessary and I suspect we are okay about it.  The neighbor island guys do not want to put up a full on fight about it because the risk is some Honolulu guys reciprocating on a much larger scale (imagine a constitutional amendment that restricts the spending of GE tax revenue only to the island on which is was generated).  So you get left with is what we saw, a staged political theatre where the Neighbor Island guys get thrown a bone, they get to growl a bit, but Honolulu got what it needed.