By Kylie Mohr for Vox

Oregonians buying nicotine pouches like Zyn and Rogue were met with a surprise at the cash register starting this year. Each tin had a new 65-cent tax on it, meant to bolster funding for the state’s wildfire reduction efforts.

Wildfires burned more than 1.9 million acres in Oregon in 2024. By the time they finally died down at the end of October, the state had spent more than $350 million fighting them, greatly exceeding the $10 million it had allocated. “By July 21, I had already completely blown through my cash on hand,” said Kyle Williams, Oregon Department of Forestry’s deputy director for fire operations.

Contractors weren’t promptly paid for services they’d already provided, from digging fuel breaks to supplying meals, and the state had to hold an emergency legislative session to allocate the money. That summer highlighted the flaws in how the state funds both firefighting and the preventive work that reduces the chances of large, destructive blazes in the first place.

By Marcel Honoré for Honolulu Civil Beat

It was intended as a bit of a Band-Aid for the wounded environment, a bill that sought about $10 million a year from cruise passengers for harbor upgrades in case the industry wins its lawsuit to be exempted from the state’s new green fee.

Yet it quietly died last month.

That leaves the state in an all-or-nothing court battle to secure the approximately $26 million in annual cruise ship payments included in the original green fee law.

The fee put Hawaiʻi at the forefront of states seeking to address the islands’ daunting overtourism, natural disaster and environmental woes by adding a relatively small 0.75 percentage point increase on the tax Hawaiʻi visitors pay on their hotel and short-term stays.

By Ashley Mizuo for Hawai‘i Public Radio

The Legislature unanimously passed the state budget, which included how about $130 million of the state’s Green Fee will be spent.

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.

The governor’s Green Fee Advisory Council recommended a series of projects at the start of the session, and the legislature finalized the list in the state budget.

My Mary Charles for Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Hawaii’s new “green fee” was sold to the public, to taxpayers and to visitors as something rare in modern government: honest, transparent and purpose-driven.

Visitors were told they would pay more to come here so Hawaii could better protect the very places they came to experience — our beaches, reefs, trails, forests and shorelines. Residents were told the new fee would help fund climate resilience, natural resource protection, disaster mitigation and a better visitor experience. It was a reasonable promise, and one many of us supported because it aligned environmental stewardship with the realities of a visitor-based economy.

To ensure those dollars were spent wisely, Gov. Josh Green created the 10-member Green Fee Advisory Council, chaired by respected environmental leaders and filled with experts who did the hard work of reviewing hundreds of proposals and recommending projects that met the law’s clear intent. That council, with Jeff Mikulina and others, built a credible, thoughtful and disciplined roadmap for how these funds should be used.

By Ashley Mizuo and Mark Ladao for Hawai‘i Public Radio

Of the nearly 3,000 bills that were introduced at the Legislature, about 270 have made it to the final step of the legislative process. Most of the measures will be voted on a final time by the House and Senate on Wednesday, and the legislative session will end on Friday. That’s a lot to digest. So here at HPR, we’re breaking down what you need to know as the Legislature heads into its final week.

By Daryl Huff and Ben Gutierrez for Hawai‘i News Now

Friday marked a crucial deadline with major decisions debated all day on the House and Senate conference committees.

It’s been a day of frenzied deal-making, but we are learning the final fate of many of the issues we’ve tracked since the session began in January.

One of the reasons so many issues were being discussed up until the last minute was the budget, which determines whether measures are affordable, and wasn’t decided until 8 p.m. Thursday.

“We are proud to pass a budget that puts Hawaii’s working families front and center,” said state Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. “This budget uses cost-saving measures to help keep our promise to address the high cost of living to deliver meaningful tax relief, especially to working and middle-class families.”

By Ashley Mizuo and Mark Ladao for Hawai‘i Public Radio

Of the nearly 3,000 bills that were introduced at the Legislature, about 270 have made it to the final step of the legislative process. Most of the measures will be voted on a final time by the House and Senate on Wednesday, and the legislative session will end on Friday. That’s a lot to digest. So here at HPR, we’re breaking down what you need to know as the Legislature heads into its final week.

4. Department budget cuts and new projects receive Green Fee funding

The state budget also includes the $130 million allocation of the state’s new Green Fee on hotels and cruise ships as an example of the state’s commitment to environmental stewardship, as the new revenue is intended for sustainable tourism, conservation efforts and climate resiliency.

By Mariko Quinn for Honolulu Star-Advertiser

I was born and raised on the water in Heeia and have been fortunate to witness and support the work of Kako‘o ‘Oiwi and Paepae o He‘eia, long-time Kupu partners. Over the years, I have watched these organizations transform and revitalize our ahupuaa. Coming full circle as Kupu’s external affairs officer, and advocating at the state level, the green fee is a huge opportunity to support climate mitigation and restoration by returning to traditional land stewardship and practices.

Kupu ‘Aina Corps (KAC) is an established program that creates jobs and conservation workforce development for the state. Allocating green fee funds to programs like KAC increases the capacity of our aina organizations, which are critical throughout Hawaii.

In addition, it also empowers local youth through meaningful employment opportunities by opening new positions at organizations across the pae aina, reconnecting a new generation to their community and culture.

By Kimber Collins for KITV 4 Island News

A roughly $20 billion state spending plan is moving forward at the State Capitol, but questions are growing about how Hawaii is using its new visitor green fee.

House Bill 1800, the state’s supplemental budget through 2027, cleared conference committee Thursday night and now heads to a final vote next week.

The plan includes billions in infrastructure spending, including:

• $446 million for public school improvements

• $646 million for highway upgrades

• $365 million for airport projects

• $78 million for hospital and healthcare improvements

Lawmakers said the budget is focused on local needs.

“We are proud to pass a budget that puts Hawaii’s working families front and center,” said State Senator Donovan M. Dela Cruz.

But embedded throughout the bill is funding tied to the state’s visitor green fee, a tourism tax that began collection Jan. 1 and is expected to generate more than $100 million annually.

By Kimber Collins for KITV 4 Island News

A new state budget bill advances with significant funding tied to Hawai‘i’s visitor Green Fee. Green Fee Advisory Council said many of its recommendations were included. Lawmakers said the funds will support infrastructure and environmental projects statewide.

By Ashley Mizuo for Hawai‘i Public Radio

It's crunch time at the Legislature as a key legislative deadline looms: conference. That's when lawmakers from both chambers have to come together to negotiate language in bills before they get a final vote.

Numerous measures have made it through conference, but some have yet to be decided. One of the key questions this legislative session has been on how the Green Fee, the new increased tax on hotels and cruise ships, would be spent. The law passed last year requires that a total of about $100 million in revenue be spent on three categories: protecting natural resources, increasing climate resiliency and sustainable tourism.

By Kevin Dayton and Chad Blair for Honolulu Civil Beat

The Legislature needs to make decisions on all tax and spending bills by Friday in order to conduct final votes next week.

House and Senate leaders finalized a list of more than $120 million in “green fee” environmental protection and other projects late Thursday evening as they hurried to meet a critical Friday deadline to move the state budget forward.

The Legislature is racing this week to complete its work on hundreds of bills and position them for final votes next week, including a new $20 billion budget they presented Thursday evening to finance state government next year. Lawmakers are scheduled to wrap up their work for the year on May 8.

By Editorial Staff for Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Good grief. With only days left to wrap things up, do lawmakers really need to pull political shenanigans over the state’s new “green fee”?

Authorized by legislation in 2025, the green fee is collected as a portion of the state’s transient accommodations tax (TAT). It’s projected to raise about $100 million annually for projects that build state resilience in the face of climate change — though about $26 million of that is in limbo while the cruise ship industry challenges its inclusion, and because Senate Bill 2698, which would drop cruise-ship TAT collections in favor of a flat per-passenger fee, is still alive.

About $130 million in “green” funding is at stake this legislative session as part of the state’s annual budget bill, but in this eleventh hour, key senators have offered alternative line items — substituting out fully half of the priorities, worth $65 million, that were carefully crafted by the 10-­member Green Fee Advisory Council (GFAC). Both the cruise ship bill and these last-minute switcheroos create unnecessary and counterproductive hurdles for the green-fee plan and the projects it supports.

By Andrew Gomes for Honolulu Star-Advertiser

How the state spends nearly $130 million on initial projects to protect natural resources, mitigate disaster risk and improve visitor experiences under Hawaii’s new “Green Fee” program is facing reshuffling at the Legislature.

Some powerful senators don’t want to fund about $65 million of projects recommended by an advisory council in January and instead have proffered their own list of suggested replacements.

Replacement recommendations include $12 million for a food and product innovation network, $800,000 for the state Department of Education to comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, and $350,000 for a sports and signature events study.

Potential eliminations include $10.6 million to support community-­driven reforestation and natural habitat improvement work, $5 million for homeowners to reduce high-wind damage risks and $1 million to cease cesspool use in the nearshore Honaunau community on Hawaii island.

The desired shakeup was put forth by the 13-member Senate Ways and Means Committee within a recently published 706-page list of proposed appropriations for the state budget bill.

By Jeff Mikulina, Chris Benjamin, and Jack Kittinger for Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Hawaiʻi took an important step when the state Legislature established the green fee, a dedicated funding stream to protect our environment, strengthen community resilience and support sustainable tourism, without adding financial burden to kamaʻāina families.

Recent events across our islands make one thing clear: the need for this investment is no longer theoretical — it is urgent. From destructive flooding to intensifying storms, communities are experiencing the impacts of a changing climate.

As an Environmental Science and Environmental Studies major at Chaminade University, an intern with the Snail Extinction Prevention Program, and a volunteer at the Bishop Museum malacology department, my life revolves around Native Hawaiian land snails. I see firsthand how habitat loss threatens these unique creatures and how the Green Fee can safeguard the state’s natural resources.

Green Fee funding will be crucial for environmental protection, conservation and habitat restoration projects, which are vital for the survival of our native snail species. I urge our decision-makers to support the Green Fee project portfolio as recommended by the Green Fee Advisory Council. This portfolio has been carefully crafted through collaboration with community members, state agencies, and experts, ensuring it reflects the needs of our environment. By preserving the Green Fee projects, we can enhance conservation efforts, restore critical habitats and protect the rich biodiversity of our Islands.

By Colleen Uechi for Maui Now

For nearly 30 years on the leeward slopes of Haleakalā, the Auwahi Forest Restoration Project has been actively converting pasture land back into Hawaiian dry forest.

Thousands of saplings have been planted at Auwahi, an area known for its diversity with about 30 different species of trees. Still, it’s “only a small fraction of the once vast forest system on the leeward side of Maui,” said Robert Pitts, a Kīhei resident involved with the project. 

That’s why Pitts is eager to see state lawmakers approve a sweeping plan to invest about $130 million in climate impact taxes, known as “green fees,” into 75 projects, many of which are aimed at restoring the environment and improving Hawai‘i’s resilience in the face of disaster. 

On Wednesday, that plan survived a key hurdle when the Hawai‘i House of Representatives’ Finance Committee approved a draft of the state budget that included support for nearly all of the recommended projects. The budget now heads to the Senate for its consideration. 

For community members involved with conservation, the green fees are a priceless opportunity.