The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands will push for new revenue streams that would allot it to develop more homestead projects for the 2026 legislative session.
Currently, 29,000 Native Hawaiian beneficiaries are on the waitlist for properties in Hawai‘i. The majority of them live on O‘ahu.
Raising the Transient Accommodations Tax by 1 percentage point and exploring geothermal energy to generate revenues are some top priorities for the department.
The department is also considering a casino. It has tried in the past, but gambling measures haven't made it through the Legislature.
DHHL Director Kali Watson said the department will have to compete with other legislative priorities, such as wildfire mitigation and effects from federal funding cuts.
“This year's going to be really tough,” Watson said.
DHHL also wants to do its own historic preservation reviews. A proposal would allow the department to assume review of any proposed project or burial sites on lands under its jurisdiction.
For all housing developments, that responsibility is currently with the State Historic Preservation Division. But Watson said the process takes a long time.
“We’re trying to take over that review process in-house, have DHHL do that,” he said. “We’re looking at maybe picking up three, four personnel so we can move that along. Not to avoid but expedite the process and the review of archeological sites. We can get it through a lot quicker, then we can start doing our developments a lot quicker, so that we can provide homesteads for our beneficiaries a lot quicker.”
The department has a $66 million operating budget.
It also received $600 million from the Legislature in 2022 through Act 279. Watson said that involves 28 projects on about 23,00 new homesteads.
“That is phase one of the 28 projects that is being dispersed and used for the construction primarily of infrastructure,” he said.
The department has historically been underfunded, and Watson said he's looking for other income streams.
One of them is exploring geothermal energy, which the department has been looking into for two years.
Rep. David Tarnas chairs the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee. He said lawmakers are currently looking at dedicated sustainable funding for DHHL's housing developments.
He said he supports geothermal energy for the department.
“We just have to do it in the right place and in the right way in a culturally and environmentally sensitive manner,” Tarnas said.
One Senate bill carried over from the last legislative session would create a permitted interaction group with DHHL to explore geothermal resources.
Measures are currently being drafted. The 2026 legislative session officially opens on Jan. 21.
Read the DHHL's approved legislative package below or click here.
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