The state Legislature gave final approval to about 250 bills Wednesday during several hours of voting that included a surprise defeat of a gun-control measure.
Approved bills now poised to become law pending decisions by Gov. Josh Green include measures to turn up illegal fireworks pursuit and punishment, regulate future catastrophic wildfire damage liability and fund the state government for the next two fiscal years as risks of an economic downturn loom due to federal government policies.
Senate President Ron Kouchi gave the Senate an “I” letter grade for its work this year, meaning incomplete, given that he and other legislative leaders expect there will be a need to call a special session before 2026 to respond to state fiscal landscape changes stemming from federal funding cutbacks, tariffs and other things coming out of the of Trump administration.
“With what is looming federally and the uncertainty, we have been trying to make the best decisions that we can without knowing if it’s going to stick,” Kouchi (D, Kauai-Niihau) said at a news conference after the Senate’s roughly four-hour floor session at the state Capitol.
Because the federal fiscal year begins Oct. 1, Kouchi anticipated possibly holding a special legislative session in November.
House Speaker Nadine Nakamura also is preparing for a special session, which she said could run five days, though she did not project a timetable.
The state budget bill, according to House Finance Committee Chair Rep. Kyle Yamashita, is projected to leave the state general fund with a $756 million balance at the end of the next fiscal year on June 30, 2026.
But Yamashita (D, Pukalani-Makawao-Ulupalakua) said this amount could change if Hawaii’s economy suffers and state tax revenue collections fall. That, in turn, could require adjustments to state spending, and could be compounded if big federal funding cuts are made to state programs.
The state budget bill, House Bill 300, appropriates $19.9 billion in spending on state government operations for the fiscal year beginning July 1, including $10.6 billion from the state general fund sustained by tax revenue.
One high-priority issue partly addressed in the budget is to crack down on the importation and use of illegal fireworks as part of a effort to prevent tragedies like the Jan. 1 fireworks explosion at a home in Aliamanu that killed six people and wounded dozens.
State appropriations in the budget bill or other bills also include $300 million for affordable housing and $50 million for nonprofits that lose federal funding. Another bill passed Wednesday would increase and expand the state’s hotel room tax, and direct some of the additional revenue to equally pay for natural resource management, climate-related disaster mitigation and mitigating tourism impacts on the natural environment.
“We know that our environment is our economy,” said Nakamura (D, Hanalei-Princeville-Kapaa).
Nakamura, who became House speaker this year, gave the House an “A” grade for the quantity and quality of bills passed after almost 3,200 bills were introduced in January.
“It’s been an incredible first-year experience,” she said at a news conference after the more than six-hour House floor session. “I’m really proud of what we were able to accomplish.”
A few bills on Wednesday failed to pass because of flaws. One of those was Senate Bill 1396, the hotel room tax measure, though floor amendments were made so that it can receive final approval Friday, the last day of this year’s regular session.
There was critical debate on a few bills Wednesday, including one to toughen Hawaii’s gun-control law. SB 401 aimed to ban the transfer, sale and importation of assault rifles, assault shotguns and .50 caliber firearms beginning Jan. 1. Instead, it was shot down by the slimmest majority of senators after an initial miscount.
House and Senate negotiators agreed on a compromise draft of SB 401 Friday. Yet Sen. Lynn DeCoite (D, East and Upcountry Maui-Molokai-Lanai) on Wednesday offered a new draft on the Senate chamber floor to in part grandfather existing owners and add exemptions for subsistence hunting and invasive wildlife control.
Sen. Karl Rhoads (D, Nuuanu-Downtown-Iwilei) said that approving the floor amendment would kill the bill because no matching amendment was being considered in the House.
The vote to adopt the amendment, by Kouchi’s initial count, failed 13-12, meaning the existing draft of the bill could be passed. Later, however, Sen. Brenton Awa (R, Kaneohe-Laie-Mokuleia) claimed that the vote actually was 13-12 in favor of adopting the floor amendment.
Kouchi, who had voted to adopt the amendment, called for everyone to repeat their vote. That confirmed Awa’s claim and triggered loud applause from more than a dozen firearms advocates in the Senate gallery.
Jon Abbott, who was dressed as a colonial American Revolutionary War soldier and is a director for the Hawaii Firearms Coalition, celebrated the bill’s failure shortly afterward on the Capitol rotunda with other opponents of SB 401.
One of the most emotional arguments during the House floor session centered around a bill to limit where the city can establish Oahu’s next landfill to replace Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill in Nanakuli, scheduled to close March 2, 2028.
If signed into law by Green, HB 969 would prevent a landfill from being built over an aquifer, after the city selected a site above an aquifer northwest of Wahiawa.
The city and state Department of Health both opposed HB 969, arguing that the tighter restrictions would force it to expand Waimanalo Gulch and keep it open past its closure deadline.
On Wednesday, some West Oahu House members urged their colleagues to kill the bill, but were unsuccessful.
Passing HB 969 would ensure that “the Nanakuli landfill will stay open,” said Rep. Darius Kila (D, Nanakuli-Maili).
Children are growing up “in the shadow” of the landfill and it needs to close, Kila said.
Rep. Christopher Muraoka (R, Waianae-Makaha) was much more blunt.
“We don’t need the Nanakuli landfill,” he said. “We’re sick and tired of being the trash can of the island.” The bill passed the House 42-7, and 24-1 in the Senate.
Another passionate yet unsuccessful plea to kill a bill took place in the Senate.
This measure, SB 897, directs the state Public Utilities Commission to determine an electric utility’s monetary liability limit for catastrophic wildfire damage for which it is responsible, with the cap potentially applying to a time period that could be many years regardless of the number of wildfire disasters in the period.
Hawaiian Electric is on the hook to pay $2 billion of a $4 billion settlement over damage claims from the Aug. 8, 2023, Maui wildfire that killed 102 people and destroyed most of Lahaina.
Sen. Jarrette Keohokalole urged colleagues to vote down SB 897 in part because the PUC’s role and time-based cap were added by a conference committee Friday and received no public input.
Keohokalole (D, Kaneohe-Kailua) said a potential liability cap covering more than one fire is shocking.
Keohokalole also said some parts of the bill are good, including allowing Hawaiian Electric to reduce financing costs to pay for wildfire mitigation. Still, he urged colleagues to do better. “What we’re doing here today is wrong, and we all know it,” he said.
According to bill supporters, the PUC has more expertise than lawmakers for the task as the existing regulator for utility companies. The three-member commission assisted by staff also is to receive $500,000 via the bill to hire experts and would make decisions in a quasi-judicial process that includes public input. Any cap also would be subject to approval by Hawaii’s governor.
SB 897 passed the Senate 20-5 and the House 39-10.
