Legislators at the Big Square Building on Beretania opened their 2024 session in mid-January facing “urgent decisions” about wildfire-ravaged Lahaina and the proliferation of short-term rentals.

On Friday, when sine die finally arrived, senators and representatives said that they had delivered on those decisions. They included giving final approval to major legislation to help Maui recover and rebuild, and to give counties the power to regulate and phase out STRs.

The word that was used most to describe what happened during the past four months was “historic,” and it’s not hyperbole. Dozens of other important measures passed, too, as the fear that there wouldn’t be enough money to pay for everything evaporated midway through the process.

“When we began this session on Jan. 17, there was so much uncertainty for our state,” House Speaker Scott Saiki said just before gaveling his chamber out on Friday. “And I know that each of you felt that uncertainty. We were in the aftermath of the Lahaina wildfire. We were faced with disaster preparation and we were unsure about the fiscal situation of our state. But you pulled through in this session, in my opinion, a historic session.”

I agree. As Saiki noted, other big accomplishments included income tax reform, the elimination of the general excise tax on medical services, decentralization of state employee hiring, more help for adult and long-term care, letting the University of Hawaii have a recurring base budget, labeling of coffee and macadamia nuts, a constitutional amendment to protect marriage equality — even regulation of noisy weed wackers.

Many of those issues had come before lawmakers many times before but never received majority support. My top takeaway from the session — and my main point here — is that it should not take the unparalleled calamity that happened on Aug. 8 in Lahaina to motivate legislators to do the right thing.

So swift was the pace of change this year that the mayor of Maui County moved to act on state legislation last week that hadn’t yet become law. Senate Bill 2919 was signed on Friday, one day after Richard Bissen proposed county legislation that could lead to the abolishing of more than 7,000 vacation units on Maui by early 2026.

The bill to allow counties control over vacation rentals had been at least eight years in coming.

“I will tell you, it is very rare that within one session a movement takes on like this and then becomes legislation and then cascades into activity,” Gov. Josh Green said before signing the bill in a ceremony in the fifth floor ceremonial room. “Very unusual. So mahalo for that.”

Green, a former member of the House and Senate, said he could not recall a situation where the Legislature passed enabling legislation like SB 2919 and a county then took immediate action.

“It’s kind of a new era,” he said.

Others are hopeful that the 2024 session is remembered more as a fundamental change in direction rather than a one-off.

“The truth is this Legislature did some amazing things that haven’t happened in a while,” said Kealii Lopez, state director of AARP Hawaii. She singled out for praise the income tax break for low- and middle-income workers (House Bill 2404), funding for wildfire response and mitigation (Senate Bill 582 and Senate Bill 3068), and letting counties build more homes on land zoned residential (Senate Bill 3202).

Lessons Learned?

Lopez previously ran Olelo Community Media, the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and the Democratic Party of Hawaii, so she knows her way around the Legislature. She said the tax credit and housing bills will certainly entail additional work because they are so consequential.

But she too thinks lawmakers and the people they represent can apply the lessons of the 2024 session going forward — to be more proactive than reactive. While it’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback, she said, many of the problems the Maui fires revealed is that there was much the state, county and others could have done ahead of time that might have lessened the tragedy.

The key, she said, is to stay focused, because policymakers need to hear from the people, and often.

“Get involved and start making your voice heard at the City Council and the Legislature, saying, ‘Look, we were worried this was going to happen. It’s happening. You need to do something.’”

Lopez added, “And don’t just get involved when bills get passed. Continue to stay engaged.”

Community activism certainly played a key role in the passage of Maui-related legislation. That was evident at the bill signing for the county STR measure. In addition to House and Senate leaders, the mayor of Honolulu and lobbyists for the hotel industry, Green invited members of the grassroots Lahaina Strong.

The group, formed following the fires, is familiar to many with their red T-shirts with yellow lettering. At the press conference Paele Kiakona, one of hui’s leaders, noted the portraits of past governors looked down upon the ceremonial room. He praised the “bold step forward” that Hawaii’s current leaders had taken with SB 2919 but also then made much the same point as Lopez.

“Don’t wait until your town is scorched and burned to the ground before you decide to take action,” he said. “We need to switch our way of thinking from saying ‘one day’ to ‘day one.’ Hawaii needs our kokua, our voices and our mana. Our aina has given us all so much and it’s time for us to give back. Today is a huge win, but it is but a small step in the right direction in bringing pono back to Hawaii and us in Lahaina. And Lahaina Strong, we’re only getting started.”

‘Game-Changer’

Kiakona was referring to more community activism. But many lawmakers also recognize that maintaining the status quo is no longer tenable.

“I think that the biggest game-changer is, now Hawaii is viewed as a wildfire state,” House Finance Committee Chair Kyle Yamashita said after Wednesday’s lengthy floor session. He said that meant changing policies and procedures for government departments to mitigate against future fires.

Yamashita also said legislators are still trying to understand and address what comes next.

“Because I don’t think we know all the answers yet of what we need to do,” he said.

Among the work that the Legislature and the governor will likely attend to soon, however, is to decide what to do with Senate Bill 2922, the Hawaiian Electric Co. securitization bill whose sudden death in the session’s waning days caught most Capitol insiders by surprise. House Bill 2700, intended to set up a fund to provide compensation for property damage from the fire, also died.

Saiki said Green will take the lead on those issues during the interim as well as on other important bills.

Another top piece of legislation, though not related directly to the fires, sought to stabilize Hawaii’s condominium insurance market against rising premiums and a declining availability of hurricane insurance. It is no small matter, as about one-fourth of the state’s population lives in condos.

As with any large body, members of the 76-member Legislature are far from being in unison on all legislation. While they did vote unanimously to approve SB 3068, the measure that appropriates about $460 million in Maui recovery funding starting July 1, there were notable cautionary views expressed on the House floor Friday.

Rep. Elle Cochran, who represents Lahaina, took “extreme issue” with the first line of SB 3068, which says this: “The Legislature finds that the devastating wildfires brought on by winds from Hurricane Dora on August 8, 2023, resulted in one of the worst natural disasters in the state’s history.”

“I don’t believe it’s accurate, and I believe that it’s changing the narrative of what truly occurred in Lahaina and the direct cause,” said Cochran, who added that there has yet to be a conclusive finding on what exactly started the fires.

Rep. Gene Ward reiterated that point. He also said he had doubts about whether the state had spent enough on Maui.

“When I add up all the figures we’re about $1 billion-plus, (but) I’m not sure that that’s going to measure up to what is needed,” he said, pointing out that appropriations for damage from Hurricane Iniki in 1992 totaled billions of dollars. “I don’t know if there’s some things that haven’t been considered, or they’ve considered them and they lowball them because they knew that things were tight.”

Ward warned that the economic outlook was “anemic” and that a special session may be needed to make adjustments to the state budget and spending.

‘Financial Safeguards’

In the Senate, though, the chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee said SB 3068 represented “a solid foundation for our recovery for years to come.”

“Although we are only at the beginning of the recovery effort, this is the most important part of the work, and I am proud in working with my colleagues to provide for our citizens in need,” Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz said.

Dela Cruz also said the passing of House Bill 40, which deposits $300 million into the so-called rainy day fund that is to be used in emergencies, was not merely a matter of fiscal prudence.

“It’s a proactive step towards ensuring Hawaii’s financial resilience in the face of uncertainty by infusing the rainy day,” he said. “It will provide a much-needed buffer against economic downturns, natural disasters or other unforeseen emergencies. This increased financial stability will bolster investor confidence, safeguard essential services and provide financial safeguards against the next disaster or economic downturn.”

We’ll see, as the saying goes. But it was truly a Kumbaya moment to see a clearly exhausted Senate join a clearly exhausted House for a hand-holding singing of “Hawaii Aloha.”

“I wish you all well as we all go our different ways back into our districts as we come to the end of this session,” said Senate President Ron Kouchi. “But I just want to say job well done to each of the members and to the staff who have done incredible work so that we can go out and take credit for all of these great bills. It could not have happened without each and every one of you assisting us to get over the goal line.”