State lawmakers are scheduled to hold conference committees on Monday to hash out differences on key bills as the final weeks of the legislative session approach.
The question of the state budget loomed large, with uncertainty surrounding the cuts to federal programs and nearly a billion dollars worth of damage from back-to-back Kona low storms.
To explain what’s ahead for the state budget, HPR spoke with Senate Ways and Means Committee Chair Donovan Dela Cruz. He represents part of the Wahiawā district and is a proponent of boosting local agriculture.
Interview Highlights
On preserving income tax breaks
DONOVAN DELA CRUZ: What we wanted to make sure, the Senate, is that we provided the income tax breaks that were promised back in 2024 to our working families. So that's for families that, households that make $350,000 or less, or $175,000 if you're a single filer, and $262,500 if you're a head of household, so if you're in that, if you make that amount or less, the tax breaks will be in place. And to pay for that, what we want to try to do is also sunset some of the tax credits. Our proposal is to sunset about $900 million worth of tax credits, because to save the income tax breaks and the standard deductions, that's going to cost about $1.8 billion.
On protecting safety net programs from federal funding cuts
DELA CRUZ: For some of the safety net programs like Medicaid and SNAP, we've actually added about $88 million to make up for the federal funding cuts and some of the federal policy changes. So we wanted to make sure that that was going to be taken care of. We also added about $175 million to an emergency appropriation bill so that the governor can have monies available. Those numbers are still fluid. We're talking to the administration as to what's going to be the real number that they're going to need. And then we also added an additional $50 million in the major disaster fund for fiscal year 27, we also included about $2 million for a rent supplement program for kūpuna. So we tried to take care of all of that, which is why we have to make the cuts that we made, so that we can preserve the tax breaks and ensure that we take care of the disaster, as well as preserving some of the safety-net programs.
On flood recovery and acquiring Wahiawā Dam
DELA CRUZ: We've been pushing for the state to acquire this dam for the last several years. They're in negotiations with Dole (Food Co., the dam's current owner). There's Agribusiness Development Corporation, Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity. They're all at the table. The last vote from one of those three boards just occurred this past week. So we're one step closer to acquiring not just the dam, but the lake. Once the state acquires those assets, then we can make the improvements that we need.
This story aired on The Conversation on April 20, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
