To government leaders (the ones in Honolulu Hale, in particular), one question: What are you waiting for?

Especially where the developing tax revolt is concerned, politicians can't afford to wait any longer to move toward a more moderate approach to taxation than what's in place.

A grassroots movement is organizing, one aimed at repealing the recent general excise tax hike to finance mass transit on O'ahu. A petition being circulated for the past two months deals specifically with the excise tax, but clearly the recent furor over assessments for property taxes has added kindling to the fire.

Even people who supported the excise tax increase to help fund mass transit are stunned by property valuations that, unless the tax rate is curtailed, will dig deep into taxpayers' pockets by 25 percent to 30 percent.

They're starting to believe that the drivers (the voters) have lost control of the whole taxation vehicle and that Hawai'i needs a serious course correction.

They're right — but that correction should not be as radical as some propose.

The city and the state have longstanding obligations to meet, with deferred maintenance of roads, parks and schools, not to mention other burgeoning social needs. Some increase in revenue is merited.

But a whopping tax increase such as the one feared by O'ahu residents is not warranted. It won't fit within the household budgets for families in the middle and even upper-middle-income tax brackets, and property owners who are already barely squeezing by certainly can't stand for it.

And when families have that much less money to spend, there will be economic impacts that many of our leaders appear not to be considering. The long-term effects on the economy of continued, substantial tax hikes never enter into the political calculator.

As a result, an extreme condition is allowed to languish until an extreme response — potentially a "Proposition 13" — results. We don't need that. Legislation through popular initiative usually does not produce wise public policy.

We can learn as much from Californians, who have been dealing with the repercussions on public schools and other services decades after they enacted their proposition.

The City Council and the mayor in particular must not let this situation fester, but should pre-emptively offer a reasonable tax proposal that acknowledges the effect of skyrocketing property values on ordinary citizens, businesses and our entire economy.

Turning the taxation steering wheel to a rational direction as soon as possible will be far easier than attempting to throw the car into reverse later when an unrealistic tax policy will be on the books and all but impossible to erase.