Bills & Legislation

RELATING TO SMALL BUSINESS LOANS.

Establishes the Hawaii start-up business loan program. Establishes the Hawaii start-up business loan program special fund. Requires DBEDT to submit an annual report to the Legislature regarding the program. Appropriates funds.

Glenn WakaiDemocrat

RELATING TO MOTOR CARRIER VEHICLES.

Repeals inspection requirements for motor carrier vehicles.

Kurt FevellaRepublican

RELATING TO HAZARD PAY BONUS.

Appropriates funds for a one-time hazard pay bonus to state officers and employees in bargaining units 5, 6, and 7, and their excluded counterparts under certain conditions.

AQUINO

RELATING TO ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY SERVICES.

Appropriates funds to the Department of Accounting and General Services for the Office of Enterprise Technology Services to develop and maintain a translation tool for the State's website.

AQUINO

RELATING TO SURFING.

Appropriates funds to the Department of Education to support the establishment of surfing as an interscholastic sport.

Glenn WakaiDemocrat

RELATING TO FIREARMS AMMUNITION.

Requires the licensing of sellers of ammunition, and for the identification and proper permitting of purchasers or possessors of ammunition. Regulates ammunition in the same manner that firearms are regulated.

Karl RhoadsDemocrat

RELATING TO LIQUOR.

Requires Liquor Commissions or Boards to deny any renewal for a liquor license if the applicant for renewal has violated any provision of the Intoxicating Liquor Law under chapter 281, Hawaii Revised Statutes, on three separate occasions during the twelve-month period preceding the renewal application date.

Karl RhoadsDemocrat

RELATING TO ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION.

Expands eligibility for scholarships under the Hawaii Community College Promise Program to all qualified students. Appropriates funds.

Karl RhoadsDemocrat

PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO THE HAWAII STATE CONSTITUTION ESTABLISHING THE RIGHT TO OWN ONE'S OWN DATA.

Proposes to amend the Hawaii State Constitution by establishing the right of each person to own and have an exclusive property right in the data they generate on the Internet.

Karl RhoadsDemocrat

RELATING TO SCHOOL IMPACT FEES.

Places oversight of the School Impact Fee Program under the School Facilities Authority Board. Allows the School Facilities Authority Board to dissolve a school impact district without a public hearing.

Stanley ChangDemocrat

RELATING TO HOUSING.

Repeals statutory requirements for certain housing projects to be eligible for loans from the Rental Housing Revolving Fund. Repeals certain statutory provisions for grants to developers for rental units eligible to be financed in part or in whole by the RHRF. Repeals statutory language requiring the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation to establish an application process for RHRF allocation that prioritized projects meeting certain requirements. Renames the Rental Housing Revolving Fund to the State Housing Revolving Fund (SHRF). Clarifies eligible applicants of the SHRF. Authorizes the HHFDC to use funds from the SHRF for broader housing projects. Establishes the Housing Efficiency and Innovation Subaccount within the SHRF. Authorizes the HHFDC to transfer funds between the Housing Efficiency and Innovation Subaccount and the RHRF without legislative approval. Amends the criteria and eligibility requirements for applicant developers seeking assistance from the SHRF. Requires the HHDFC to maximize the amount of housing built that utilizes loans from the SHRF by prioritizing projects with the shortest projected loan repayment terms that produce the highest number of units, per dollar, per year. Repeals all other priorities and preferences for projects utilizing the RHRF. Establishes a working group to revise the State's Qualified Allocation Plan, the prioritization of the SHRF, and the terms of loans. Requires a report to the Legislature. Allocates ten per cent of conveyance tax collections to the DURF. Removes the annual cap on conveyance taxes paid into the SHRF.

Stanley ChangDemocrat

RELATING TO WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT.

Establishes the Hawaii State Fellows Program within the Department of Human Resources Development to match talented applicants with full-time, paid fellowship roles in various state agencies for a period of ten to eleven months. Establishes minimum qualifications and procedures for eligible applicants to apply to the program. Gives preference to eligible program applicants who have pre-existing ties to the State or a demonstrated commitment to long-term leadership in the State. Requires the Department of Human Resources Development, in consultation with the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, to coordinate with state agencies to implement and promote the program. Requires a report to the Legislature. Appropriates funds.

Stanley ChangDemocrat

RELATING TO MENTAL HEALTH.

Requires the Department of Health to construct a mental health facility for inmates or detainees with mental health needs in the custody of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Appropriates moneys.

Stanley ChangDemocrat

RELATING TO SCHOOL IMPACT FEES.

Exempts certain housing developments from assessments of school impact fees.

Stanley ChangDemocrat

RELATING TO INSURANCE.

Allows captive insurance companies that are not risk retention captive insurance companies to apply to the Insurance Commissioner for certificates of exemption from examination if the captive insurance companies meet certain requirements.

Stanley ChangDemocrat

RELATING TO EVICTIONS.

Prohibits landlords from terminating certain tenancies without cause. Establishes criteria under which landlords can undertake a no-fault eviction. Requires landlords, when proceeding with a no-fault eviction, to offer relocation assistance to the tenant or waiver of the final month's rent. Effective 1/1/2026.

Stanley ChangDemocrat

RELATING TO EVICTION RECORDS.

Requires that all court records of any eviction proceeding be sealed within specified timeframes upon resolution of the proceeding. Authorizes the court to seal certain eviction records prior to the expiration of these timeframes upon motion by a tenant who is able to demonstrate that certain conditions apply. Requires the clerk of the court to provide access to sealed eviction records to the tenant. Makes it a discriminatory practice to require a person to disclose a sealed eviction record as a condition of certain real property transactions. Prohibits discrimination in real property transactions against a person with a sealed eviction record.

Stanley ChangDemocrat

RELATING TO CRIME.

Establishes a special intergovernmental task force to eradicate illegal gambling and drug activities and to establish community safe zones across the State. Requires a report to the Legislature.

Kurt FevellaRepublican

RELATING TO PUBLIC LANDS.

Prohibits the State from leasing public lands to or extending the lease of the US Department of Defense or any branch of the US military if the department or branch is noncompliant with any environmental order, consent decree, or memoranda of agreement, or any law, rule, or order on a matter affecting residents' health and safety. Requires Department of Land and Natural Resources to request that the military agree to remediation of existing leased lands prior to the end of the lease term.

Kurt FevellaRepublican

RELATING TO INVASIVE SPECIES.

Authorizes any department of the Invasive Species Council, county, or any agent of a department of the Invasive Species Council or a county, including the Hawaii Ant Lab or an island-based invasive species committee to use community action programs for the control or eradication of certain invasive pests. Defines community action program. Exempts individuals participating in a community action program from pest control operator requirements and regulations.

Jarrett KeohokaloleDemocrat

RELATING TO ELECTIONS.

Requires the Office of Elections to establish three additional voting centers in a county with a population of five hundred thousand or more. Requires a report to the Legislature.

Donna Mercado KimDemocrat

RELATING TO NEONICOTINOIDS.

Requires the Department of Agriculture and University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources to conduct a study on the effects of neonicotinoids on Hawaii beehive and apiary operations, including beekeeping activities at solar energy facilities. Appropriates moneys.

Lynn DeCoiteDemocrat

RELATING TO CORAL REEFS.

Requires the Department of Land and Natural Resources to conduct a study on the populations of coral reef herbivores around the island of Oahu and an analysis of policies and strategies to increase the populations of coral reef herbivores around Oahu, in consultation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center and other experts. Requires a report to the Legislature. Appropriates funds.

Mike GabbardDemocrat

RELATING TO ADAPTATION PATHWAYS PLANNING.

Expands the authority of the State and counties to develop adaptation pathways plans to modify and relocate infrastructure away from critically threatened areas to locations outside sea level rise and coastal flooding exposure areas. Appropriates funds.

Mike GabbardDemocrat

RELATING TO CESSPOOLS.

Part II: Requires certain priority level 1 cesspools to be upgraded, converted, or connected before 1/1/2035, and priority level 2 cesspools to be upgraded, converted, or connected before 1/1/2040, rather than before 1/1/2050. Part III: Appropriates funds to the Department of Health to implement the Cesspool Compliance Pilot Grant Project established pursuant to Act 153, Session Laws of Hawaii 2022. Part IV: Establishes an income tax credit for the cost of upgrading or converting a qualified cesspool to a Director of Health-approved wastewater system or connecting to a sewerage system, and requires the Auditor to periodically review the tax credit.

Mike GabbardDemocrat

RELATING TO SCHOOL MEALS.

Requires the Department of Education to authorize and facilitate complex areas or individual department schools to form their own farm to school meal programs through partnerships to meet the local farm to school meal goal of thirty per cent of food served in the school to consist of locally sourced products by 2030. Allows the Department of Education to establish a plant-based meal program no later than the 2026-2027 school year.

Mike GabbardDemocrat

RELATING TO AGRICULTURE.

Establishes a Plant-Based Building Materials Working Group to study how best to grow plants, develop plant-based building materials in Hawaii, and provide economic development and green jobs while sequestering greenhouse gases to help achieve the State's climate target. Requires a report to the legislature.

Mike GabbardDemocrat

RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL TOURISM.

Requires the counties to adopt ordinances setting forth procedures and requirements for the review and permitting of agricultural tourism uses and activities as secondary uses, in addition to accessory uses, on a working farm or farming operation. Requires the counties' ordinances to include requirements that: the principal agricultural use on a working farm or farming operation preexists the issuance of any land use permit or building permit for any accessory and secondary use; agricultural tourism includes only those activities that are allowed under existing zoning and land use regulations; and agricultural tourism be allowed only on land on which productive agricultural use is occurring.

Mike GabbardDemocrat

RELATING TO ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE.

Requires that if parking is to be included in any new state building construction, the design provide that at least twenty-five per cent of parking stalls be electric vehicle charger-ready. Requires the Hawaii State Energy Office, in consultation with the Department of Accounting and General Services and the Department of Transportation, to conduct a survey and identify certain high-priority state facilities. Establishes a goal of the State to retrofit state facilities to be electric vehicle charger-ready. Requires a report to the Legislature. Appropriates funds.

Mike GabbardDemocrat

RELATING TO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FARM TO SCHOOL PROCUREMENT.

Requires the Department of Education to establish rules for the procurement of goods and services related to the administration of food programs at public schools that incorporate a geographic preference for unprocessed locally grown and locally raised food products.

Mike GabbardDemocrat

RELATING TO PRESCRIPTION DRUGS.

Establishes requirements for the clinical review criteria and clinical practical guidelines used to establish step therapy protocols. Provides a process for a patient to request an exception to using step therapy protocols. Establishes insurance coverage requirements relating to the use of step therapy protocols and standards to appeal an adverse step therapy exception determination.

Brandon J.C. ElefanteDemocrat

RELATED TO DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE.

Requires defendants convicted of causing the death of a parent or legal guardian of a minor child by the operation of a vehicle in a negligent manner while under the influence of drugs or alcohol to make restitution in the form of financial support to each surviving child of the victim.

Brandon J.C. ElefanteDemocrat

RELATING TO INTER-ISLAND FERRY SERVICE.

Clarifies that harbor use fees shall not be waived for vessels engaging in inter-island ferry service within Maui county.

Lynn DeCoiteDemocrat

RELATING TO TOURISM.

Replaces the Hawaii Tourism Authority with the Corporation for the Stewardship of Hawaii Tourism, a nonprofit entity to guide Hawaii's visitor economy in collaboration with public, private, nonprofit, and community stakeholders in achieving beneficial outcomes from tourism based on the principles of destination stewardship and regenerative tourism.

Lynn DeCoiteDemocrat

RELATING TO INCOME.

Implements a phased elimination of the tip credit.

Kurt FevellaRepublican

RELATING TO CHILDREN.

Requires medically appropriate and reasonable life-saving and life-sustaining medical care and treatment for all infants born alive. Establishes civil and criminal penalties.

Kurt FevellaRepublican

RELATING TO CESSPOOLS.

Authorizes the Director of Health to grant an exemption from the requirement to upgrade, convert, or connect a cesspool if the State is unable to present evidence that the cesspool is affecting the State's drinking water supply or recreational waters.

Kurt FevellaRepublican

RELATING TO THE HAWAII COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY.

Allows the raising of the building height limit for 2 of the 5 parcels owned by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in the Kakaako Makai area to 400 feet. Lifts the current restriction against residential development on the 5 OHA-owned parcels in Kakaako Makai to allow residential development by OHA or by third parties to which OHA conveys the parcels. Requires OHA and any developer to provide written notice to any tenant or resident of potential aircraft related nuisances before entering into a lease, and to assess and propose mitigation efforts to address aircraft related nuisances in development plans and proposals.

Kurt FevellaRepublican

RELATING TO PUBLIC LANDS.

Prohibits the Department of Land and Natural Resources from approving any land disposition to the United States military that allows for or facilitates any military training activities on the subject lands. Requires that any lease or lease extension between the State and the US Department of Defense or branches of the US military include certain provisions, including an acknowledgement that the State retains authority over all environmental matters within its jurisdiction. Provides that violation of state or federal environmental law, or any law, rule, or order on a matter affecting the health and safety of the State's residents, shall be grounds for terminating the lease.

Kurt FevellaRepublican

RELATING TO WATER.

Prohibits the use of 1,000,000 or more gallons of water per year for recreational or ornamental purposes.

Kurt FevellaRepublican

RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES.

Requires the Department of Human Services to assess the feasibility of offering a 20% discount on certain goods and services for the State's low- to moderate-income elders.

Kurt FevellaRepublican

RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION.

Requires the Department of Transportation to install and use at each state airport and commercial harbor electronic equipment capable of scanning for illegal fireworks.

Kurt FevellaRepublican

RELATING TO PROPERTY.

Prohibits nonresident aliens and businesses and trusts that are significantly controlled by nonresident aliens from acquiring certain residential property in the State, except as otherwise provided by law.

Kurt FevellaRepublican

RELATING TO STUDENT OUT-OF-SERVICE-AREA ATTENDANCE.

Prohibits the Department of Education from mandating that any student attend a school outside the student's service area. Establishes a 5 year phaseout period. Requires the DOE to submit annual progress reports.

Kurt FevellaRepublican

RELATING TO PUBLIC NOTICE.

Establishes enhanced public notice requirements for changes in land use by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, Department of Land and Natural Resources, or University of Hawaii and boundary changes by the Land Use Commission. Requires approval of the project by the community through a referendum of nearby adult residents except for projects within the Mauna Kea science reserve, which require a referendum by all adult residents of the country in which the Mauna Kea science reserve is located. Appropriates moneys.

Kurt FevellaRepublican

RELATING TO TRANSPORTATION.

Authorizes the Director of Transportation to designate as a toll road, and impose toll charges for the use of, any existing state highway. Requires the Director of Transportation to designate as a toll road a certain portion of Hana Highway. Requires the Department of Transportation to develop a plan to exempt resident vehicle operators from the imposition of toll charges for the use of Hana Highway.

Lynn DeCoiteDemocrat

RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL LAND CONVEYANCE TAX.

Establishes a surcharge on the conveyance tax upon the net capital gain from the transfer or conveyance of agricultural land.

Mike GabbardDemocrat