How Hawaiʻi might spend funds from new climate tax on hotel stays

By Bill Dorman for Hawaiʻi Public Radio

The Hawaiʻi Legislature opens for business on Jan. 21. Between now and the opening session, HPR will be hearing a lot about plans and priorities. From federal funding cuts to climate change, a lot of those priorities focus on Hawaiʻi's environment.

Top of the list: the “Green Fee,” a new revenue source, as of Jan. 1, funded by a 0.75 percentage point increase in the transient accommodations tax. It's expected to raise about $100 million a year.

What's the most effective way to spend that money? That’s a question that faced the state’s Green Fee Advisory Council — a 10-member group making recommendations on where and how to spend this revenue.

The council is chaired by Jeff Mikulina, a longtime environmental activist and policy specialist who’s also executive director of Climate Hawaiʻi. He sat down with The Conversation to discuss those recommendations, how the money will be spent, and a bit about the people who have been looking at the options.

Click here to read the article and listen to the recording aired by Hawaiʻi Public Radio on Jan. 12