Gov. Josh Green’s State of the State address highlighted his accomplishments over the last two years: a historic income tax cut, expanding kauhale villages and a push for more affordable housing.
However, Green emphasized that the state’s biggest problems would take years to fix. That’s why his priorities this legislative session are the same as the year before: cost of living and housing.
“ For decades we were talking about the housing crisis and we didn't really make enough progress on that. You're going to hear me talk about housing and homelessness again next year,” he said.
“I will give you a little mini warning because it doesn't just get fixed in one or two years. But over four or a few more years, you'll see massive changes for the better. I want this generation of kids to be able to come back and live in Hawaiʻi affordably.”
House Speaker Nadine Nakamura explained that it's in line with the House majority.
“We agree with the governor in a lot of respects that the state of the state is strong, but we have a lot of work to do,” she said.
“He covered many topics that we are also trying to address housing, homelessness, the high cost of living in Hawaiʻi”
Green didn’t directly mention the looming insurance crisis in his State of the State speech, but he said it is one of the main things that the Legislature will focus on. He thinks that the devastating Los Angeles fires could crack the insurance industry and the state will need to be prepared.
“ The State of Hawaiʻi may very well have to provide a layer of protection kind of across the whole challenge,” he said.
“Almost like a forcefield around our industry so that we have a modicum of insurance for older buildings for buildings that have to take more time to make their improvements to lower their insurance premiums.”
The insurance issue is also tied to Green's push for more climate resiliency. His team estimates that it will cost $500 million a year to address. That’s why he is again pushing for a climate impact fee.
“You can do climate impact fees directly in areas of high use. You can increase the [transient accommodations] tax and share some of that money with the tourism and hotel industry as they fortify their infrastructure,” he said.
“Or you can do what we call the scrape, which is to scrape off the interest of the rainy day fund, which we've maintained at $1.5 billion.”
Meanwhile, the state is bracing itself for potential impacts on federal funding due to promised cuts from the Trump administration. Nakamura explained that the Legislature is supportive of some of Green's budget requests to push back against those decisions.
“He has put funding in to help to preempt some of the decisions that will be made at the federal government level that's going to impact Hawaiʻi,” she said.
“I believe the $10 million, for example, in the Attorney General's budget is one of the tools that will be used. I think there's going to be support on the legislative side to prepare Hawaiʻi for things that might be coming down sooner than later.”
If federal cuts do come to fruition, Green said he intends to fund Medicaid — especially for those with disabilities, homelessness programs and reproductive health, including planned parenthood.
Green and the Legislature will also be looking for a more effective fireworks law to crack down on illegal aerials following the New Year’s Eve explosion on O‘ahu.