How will Hawaiʻi spend The Green Fee? Some projects are 'head scratchers'

By Ashley Mizuo for Hawai‘i Public Radio

Mark Ladao / Hawai‘i Pubic 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 governorʻs 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.

“In large measure, it does accomplish those original goals. Of course, it doesn't have everything that the council was asking for,” saidGreen Fee Advisory Council Chair Jeff Mikulina.

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, some projects didn’t seem clearly related to the three buckets written in the law.

Click here to read the full article published by Hawai‘i Public Radio on May 7.