Legislature races to meet critical deadline

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

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.”

To preserve the progressive tax breaks passed two years ago, lawmakers found savings across the board without major tax credits or service cuts.

The nearly $8 billion two-year construction budget funds a variety of projects throughout the state, including $73 million for a new elementary school in East Kapolei and $58 million for improvements to the old Wahiawa Dam, which became an urgent focus after the Kona low storms.

The budget also includes $120 million for so-called Green Fee projects funded by higher hotel taxes. Lawmakers rejected many of the recommendations from the Green Fee Advisory Committee and put in their own projects.

“I had a mix of emotions, and what we are leaning on is that we all did everything that we could to make sure that this funding really centers community in Aina, in its efficacy and in its impact. There were a lot of projects that were included,” said Carmela Resuma, a member of the Green Fee Advisory Committee.

Click here to read the full article published by Hawai‘i News Now on May 1.