This is the first year lawmakers had to decide how to spend revenue from The Green Fee tax on tourists — designed to pay for climate projects.
The funds were to go to projects in three areas: protecting natural resources, increasing climate resiliency, and sustainable tourism. Green Fee Advisory Council Chair Jeff Mikulina explained that the law only requires the governor's request to fall into those three specific buckets, which leaves the Legislature with significant leeway.
While some of the final projects remained the same, like millions of dollars for coral reef and ahupuaʻa restoration, wildfire reduction and retrofitting homes to withstand hurricanes.
In addition, there's the $200,000 allocation for a cattle slaughterhouse, $350,000 for a sports and signature events study — and the largest allocation of any project on the list: $7 million for a Food and Product Innovation Network. Most of the changes were inserted by the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
A full text version of this story will be available later today.
