Matson Moves to Intervene in Jones Act Lawsuit
Focus should be on job growth and progress, not more and more taxes
Lahaina sewer system 100% restored
NOTE: Today, Friday, April 25, 2025, is the ‘Final Decking’ deadline for fiscal bills. Bills not approved by Conference Committee by the end of the day are dead. LINK
City spending up 83% despite fewer residents
SA: … Honolulu City and County spending has more than doubled over the past decade despite Oahu’s population declining during the same period, suggesting that now might be a good time for Honolulu lawmakers to start looking for ways to trim the county budget and give Oahu taxpayers a break.
Specifically, Honolulu’s population has declined by 2.8% since fiscal 2015, from 1,017,588 to 989,408 as of July 2024. Yet the mayor is proposing an operating budget of $3.9 billion for fiscal 2026, compared with the $1.5 billion budget in fiscal 2015.
That’s an increase of 83% versus 33% for inflation during that same period, so this is not just about keeping up with inflation — nor keeping up with an expanding population.
Meanwhile, the average property tax rate in Honolulu has increased by 8.8%, from an average of $5.46 per $1,000 in assessed value in fiscal 20151 to $5.78 per $1,000 today2 — and that’s on top of net property assessments increasing during that period by 56%, from $174 billion to $307 billion — basically a double whammy on the average Oahu taxpayer….
read … Column: City spending going up, despite fewer residents. Solutions? | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
SB401: Gut-n-Replace Assault weapon ban in Hawaii heads to senate floor
KITV: … A state conference committee advanced the assault weapon ban which will make its way to the senate floor ….
SB401: Text, Status
HPR: Hawaiʻi could become the 11th state to ban the purchase of assault rifles | Hawai'i Public Radio
HNN: Measure to ban sales of new assault-style rifles goes to full legislature
HIFICO: Help Stop SB401 - Hawaii Firearms Coalition | Facebook
HIFICO: How much do anti-gun groups spend lobbying... - Hawaii Firearms Coalition
read … Assault weapon ban in Hawaii heads to senate floor
HB1308: Photo Finish for Online sports betting
SA: … House Bill 1308, House Draft 3, Senate Draft 2 allows for the regulation of sports wagering by the state Department of Law Enforcement and authorizes officials to perform criminal history record checks on applicants and licensees relating to sports wagering.
The measure would establish licensing requirements for operators and suppliers and the general excise tax to be paid. It would also set up the Problem Gambling Prevention and Treatment Special Fund to be administered and expended by the Department of Health. It makes clear that legal sports wagering and fantasy sports contests shall not be considered contests of chance or gambling.
From April 1, 2024, to March 31, GeoComply processed about 400,000 geo-location checks on devices located in Hawaii that tried to access legal online sports books in other states before the company’s software blocked them, according to a release from the company. During that same period, GeoComply identified about 54,000 sports betting user accounts in Hawaii, a 47% increase.
Gov. Josh Green told Hawaii News Now that a survey taken by a private third party showed that two-thirds of respondents support online sports betting and that if it passes, he likely won’t veto it …..
KHON: City leaders: Legalizing sports betting could result in 'devastating consequences' - YouTube
HB1308: Text, Status
read … Online sports betting under consideration in Hawaii
HECO Energy Bills Battle Legislative Deadline
IM: … All bills must be decked for final reading by tonight (Friday April 25). Eight wildfire and utility related bills hang in the balance. Widely divergent House and Senate positions exist for some of them.
SB897: One bill is labeled by some as the HECO bailout bill, and by others as a necessary poison. Should there be a liability cap for future wildfires caused by the utility?
The cap would be for a catastrophic wildfire that burned 500 or more residential buildings. A utility-caused wildfire that burned only 499 buildings and killed 10,000 people would not be termed catastrophic and would not be covered by the legislation.
The bill would allow the utility to utilize securitization to strengthen the grid to decrease the likelihood of a utility-caused wildfire. A working group would be established to examine the establishment and implementation of a wildfire recovery fund and report its findings and recommendations to the Legislature.
The SB897 SD3 HD2 conference committee will reconvene at 9:14 a.m. in conference room 325.
SB1500: What if the Hawaiian Electric Companies go bankrupt?
The bill authorizes the Public Utilities Commission to appoint a receiver to take temporary action necessary to ensure continued adequate electric services from failing regulated investor-owned electric utilities. Existing collective bargaining agreement would remain in force.
The receiver would be banned from inducing or causing a reduction in the labor force
SB1500 SD2 HD1 conference committee will reconvene at 1:30 p.m. Conference Room 224.
SB1501: Independent Power Producers are reluctant to sign Power Purchase Agreements with the Hawaiian Electric Companies since their investments could be financially crippled if HECO goes bankrupt.
A legal arrangement could be made where future ratepayer revenues would enable the recovery of their costs. Step-in agreements for payment obligations arising under certain power purchase agreements would be secure by a ratepayer surcharge that would fund a reserve account.
The legislature authorizes, and empowers the electric utility to serve as the billing, collection, and payment agent of the Department of Budget and Finance in the service of performing step-in agreements
SB1501 SD2 HD1 conference committee will reconvene at 9:15 a.m. in conference room 325….
read … HECO Energy Bills Battle Legislative Deadline | Ililani Media
Aloha Stadium Spending Bill Dead?
HNN: … Lawmakers have agreed on details of a bill that would ban many popular automatic rifles. They announced their decision an hour and a half before the bill would have died under internal rules of the legislature.
But hundreds of other items are still in the pipeline for agreement by the deadline for bills that use and raise state money.
Among items that didn’t pass was an increase in the spending ceiling for the Aloha Stadium Authority, which means the authority does not have access to $49.5 million that the legislature previously approved….
Although House leaders did not respond, some still doubt the massive public-private partnership can succeed.
Stadium Authority chair Brennon Morioka said the agency has other pools of funds that can be accessed, although not as easily….
“It just makes an already complicated project a little bit more complicated,” he said.
Lawmakers did agree that if the stadium finds a high-paying sponsor, its name or logo would be allowed on the outside, an exemption to Hawaii’s anti-billboard law….
KITV: Assault weapon ban in Hawaii heads to senate floor
read … Unresolved bills pile up at Hawaii Capitol ahead of key deadline
Budget Bill Includes $30M for New Jail
SA: … An appropriation of $30 million to move forward on additional planning and design work to replace the Oahu Community Correctional Center (OCCC) has properly been included in the draft budget agreed on by House and Senate leaders. This money must be deployed to get the jail relocated without delay, since delay will only add to the potential costs….
read … Editorial: Lock in funds for OCCC relocation | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
After Killing Girl, Driver with 164 Violations Finally gets some Jail Time
SA: … The man charged with first-degree negligent homicide in the Feb. 15, 2023, hit-and-run death of a McKinley High School student was sentenced Monday to one year in jail for a traffic crime that occurred a month before the fatal crash.
Mitchel Miyashiro pleaded no contest Sept. 20, 2023 — the day his trial was to begin — to driving without a valid driver’s license.
Miyashiro was driving without a valid driver’s license and had more than 164 traffic citations when he was arrested in the death of 16-year-old Sara Yara, who was walking in a marked crosswalk on Kapiolani Boulevard, and the injury of her friend…
read … Driver in fatal crash sentenced for prior violation | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
SB1571: HTA to Lose Autonomy after CNHA Cleaned it Out?
HNN: … Senate Bill 1571 is close to becoming law, and looks to take away the HTA’s autonomy and placing the agency directly under state control.
If the bill is passed, HTA’s board would become advisory and its president and CEO would be appointed by the governor.
The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement also opposes the idea, and said it “throws HTA out of balance with the necessary checks and balances of governance (we get to cash)….”
Also in the final stages of discussion, increased fees on visitors and cruise ships....
read … Big changes could come to Hawaii’s tourism industry in final days of state legislature
Bills aimed to help sex trafficking victims
KITV: … House Bill 111 is waiting for Governor Green’s signature—this would allow sex trafficking victims to seek civil remedies against those that exploit them.
”We think about hotels, we think about massage parlors, often we think about even like condo complexes—where people, business know what is happening. In many cases they have been told by law enforcement and service providers over and over again what is happening and a plethora of information about what is happening and yet they don't do anything to stop it,” Coffield said.
Senate Bill 292 will get a final vote next week, and is known as the safe harbor bill.
”This is something that guarantees that survivors when they report that they have been in the sex trade, that they have been victimized by the sex trade, that they have been abused by the sex trade, are not going to be prosecuted,” Coffield said.
read … 'The darker side of paradise': Bills aimed to help sex trafficking victims | News | kitv.com
Legislature Imposing Higher Electric Bills-Will Trump Executive Order Save Hawaii from Green Energy Initiative?
CB: … The state’s promise to produce all of its own electricity by 2045 faces mounting obstacles in the form of tariffs, a hostile Trump administration and a financially troubled utility.
Policymakers, from the governor to utility regulators, are pushing to stay on track. But some changes now on the table could mean higher electric bills and a compromise that renewable energy advocates don’t like.
Lawmakers have two bills still alive to address the challenges: one would help shore up Hawaiian Electric Co.’s credit rating; another would backstop financing of big wind and solar farms.
Both would impose additional fees, at least temporarily (for all eternity), on customers who already pay among the nation’s highest rates for electricity….
One potential obstacle involves President Donald Trump. Earlier this month, Trump issued an executive order to eliminate “burdensome and ideologically motivated ‘climate change’ or energy policies that threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security.”
The document orders the U.S. Attorney General to identify and stop state energy policies “purporting to address ‘climate change’ or involving ‘environmental, social, and governance’ initiatives, ‘environmental justice,’ carbon or ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions, and funds to collect carbon penalties or carbon taxes.”
Although Hawaiʻi’s mandate cites the economic goal of promoting energy independence rather than addressing climate change, supporters have long pointed to the law’s environmental benefits.
The mandate runs counter to Trump’s goal of promoting “domestic energy resources — particularly oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, geothermal, biofuel, critical mineral, and nuclear energy resources.”
Whether the federal government can block Hawaiʻi’s law remains to be seen. Hawaiʻi Attorney General Anne Lopez’s office is aware of the order and is reviewing it, according to spokesperson Toni Schwartz….
read … Hawaiʻi's Pledge To Free Itself From Fossil Fuel Hits New Roadblocks - Honolulu Civil Beat
HART eyes Iwilei, Kakaako properties to condemn for rail
SA: … The properties in question include:
>> 560 Halekauwila St., owned by architecture firm Design Partners Properties No. 5 LLC.
>> 609 Keawe St., owned by Bank of Hawaii, trustee for the Katherine McGrew Cooper Trust.
>> 576 Halekauwila St., owned by Goodwill Kakaako Center LLC and Big Brothers Big Sisters Hawaii Properties LLC.
>> 1956 Dillingham Blvd., owned by Gerald Je Chul Kang and Kloe Sookhee Kang ….
read … HART eyes Iwilei, Kakaako properties to condemn for rail
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