Resolutions a sign that legislators are listening

by Keli'i Akina, Ph.D., President / CEO, Grassroot Institute of Hawaii

As we await official word on which bills hashed out by this year’s Legislature will head to the governor’s desk for final approval, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the still-hopeful path of two ideas that didn’t make it to the finish line in quite the way we’d hoped.

I’m talking about fiscal notes and building codes. Those might not sound like exciting topics, but each is very important.

Regarding fiscal notes, I have previously stressed how strange it is that Hawaii is the only state in which lawmakers consider bills without any reliable estimates of what they might cost the state or its economy in general. A bill was introduced this session to address that situation, SB1081, but it didn’t make it very far.

However, lawmakers did pass a concurrent resolution, HCR61, which requests that the Legislative Reference Bureau study how other states produce fiscal notes, then present its findings, along with any recommended legislation, before the 2026 session. So there is a reason to be hopeful that fiscal notes will soon become a permanent part of Hawaii's legislative process.

Regarding building codes, Hawaii’s convoluted approach to adopting them is clearly in dire need of reform.

As it stands, the state’s four counties are perpetually late in adopting the most current versions, which leads to uncertainty and expense for planners and homebuilders. Streamlining the process is one more thing we should do to help bring down the cost of housing construction. Multiple bills were introduced this session to achieve this, but all died early on.

However, again, the Legislature did adopt a resolution, HCR67, which will bring together key stakeholders to formulate a comprehensive strategy for the timely updating of building codes.

There is no timeline on this resolution, but if we’re lucky, there will be recommendations for new legislation before the 2026 session.

In the meantime, Gov. Josh Green’s ongoing housing emergency proclamations continue to lift some of the code requirements for counties, but those aren’t supposed to last forever, which makes it clear that a permanent fix is urgently needed.

These two new resolutions do not actually change existing law, but they are a sign that the Legislature is listening. Our state lawmakers at least adopted resolutions in favor of fiscal notes and building-code updates, and that’s cause for celebration.

E hana kākou! (Let's work together!)