Hawaii's Former Governor had harsh words today for Honolulu's Mayor and the rail system he's pushing on Oahu.

"I am here today because I have never seen such a blatant public relations campaign that distorts the facts and manages the information as I have this one," said Ben Cayetano, Former Governor.

Cayetano points to the ads that say the city is likely to recieve up to 900,000 in federal funds to pay for the 3.7 billion dollar transit system.

In an e-mail to the group stop rail now, the Federal Transit Administration says, "It's far too early to tell whether Honolulu's proposed rail project will receive New Starts funding. The project hasn't yet been accepted into the New Starts program."

That's funding for capital transit projects. According to the FTA's website, Honolulu is not yet on the list.

"The ex-governor and SRN is saying we don't have it. We don't have it. We don't have it today we don't need it today. This is not the day in the process that we are supposed to have that money," said Bill Brennan, spokeman for Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann.

The mayor's spokesman says the money won't come though until 2011, but there's no reason to believe it won't as he says there is a lot of support in Washington for it.

Cayetano, who supports Ann Kobayashi's bid for mayor, says Mayor Hannemann is rushing rail to further his own political agenda.

"He wants to start construction in 2009, that has to be one of the most irresponsible things that I've ever heard because you don't have federal approval," said Cayetano.

The city says it's not needed. There will be enough local money collected from the general excise tax to break ground.

"To characterize this as rushed or railroaded is really a mis characterization. Everything is moving along at a certain albeit ambitious timetable to get it done because the need to relieve traffic congestion on west side is urgent, " said Brennan.

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