With Hawaii’s 2025 Legislative session in our collective rearview mirror — and while we await Gov. Josh Green’s action on dozens of measures — it’s time to assess how well our lawmakers worked on our behalf.
Did they build on the momentum of major measures that passed last year, such as historic income tax cuts and groundbreaking housing reforms, or did they rest on their laurels and pump the brakes?
More importantly, did they walk back any of those 2024 wins as many feared?
Thankfully, they seem to have kept the pedal to the metal, as there are many positive results to report.
Not only did lawmakers preserve the historic income tax cuts that took effect in January, but they also rejected almost all of this session’s major tax-hike proposals.
Unfortunately, a perennial push to increase the state transient accommodations tax was finally successful, and the measure that crossed the finish line also extends the TAT to cruise ships.
However, it is worth celebrating that a bill to increase the unemployment contribution tax on businesses died, along with one that proposed increasing the state’s capital gains tax.
Other measures that rightfully failed include a wealth asset tax and a massive carbon tax increase.
We can only hope that our lawmakers won’t revisit these harmful policies in the future.
Speaking of harmful policies, it is also worth cheering that the 2025 Legislature moved to roll back even more restrictive homebuilding regulations.
Specifically, it approved SB66, which directs the counties to establish a new element into their permit processes called self-certification; HB422, which eliminates school impact fees for home projects under 100 units and substantially reduces them for other housing projects; and two bills aimed at speeding up historic property reviews: SB15 and HB830.
Also related to housing, especially for our Maui ohana, the Legislature passed SB1296, which will codify the governor’s emergency exemption from Special Management Area regulations for hundreds of coastal structures in Lahaina that were destroyed by the August 2023 wildfires.
Although it is disappointing that the final version of the bill does not apply the same exemption to properties directly along the shoreline, it still marks a major win for speeding up the rebuilding process.
Finally, the Legislature took a brave step forward in passing civil asset forfeiture reform.
State law, unfortunately, allows law enforcement to seize property allegedly associated with a crime, sell it, and keep the proceeds — even in the absence of a conviction or without charges having been filed.
But HB126 would limit civil asset forfeiture to only cases in which the property owners are charged with a crime within the first year after the seizure.
A similar bill made it all the way to Gov. David Ige’s desk back in 2019, after the state Office of the Auditor produced a report criticizing the forfeiture program, but he vetoed it under pressure from law enforcement groups.
Overall, a lot of good came out of the 2025 Legislature on many fronts. No session is perfect, but what a relief it is to look back on yet another one with much hope for Hawaii’s future.
KELI‘I AKINA is president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.
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