Environmental groups urge lawmakers to fund climate initiatives through tourist fee (2025)

Environmental groups are urging lawmakers to pass a measure that would increase taxes on tourists and fund climate initiatives.

Two bills still alive this legislative session, SB1396 and HB504, consider raising the 10.25% transient accommodations tax by 1 percentage point.

HB504 would also charge cruise ships $20 per passenger when they dock in Hawaiʻi. Cruise ships do not currently pay any transient accommodations tax.

The Care for Āina Now Coalition hopes this increase will help offset the reported $1.4 billion needed to fight climate change over the next five years.

The 1% TAT increase is expected to bring in roughly $150 million annually, according to Kainan Miranda, the director of external affairs at the Nature Conservancy.

However, those funds are largely going into the state’s general fund. The bill no longer creates a special fund for climate resiliency as originally intended.

The bill does include a section directing some funds to be allocated to environmental stewardship for the next two years, but lawmakers have not yet specified how much. The Care for Āina Now Coalition wants lawmakers to allocate at least $100 million.

“We have to take care of our environment because the environment, in return, takes care of us. As Native Hawaiians, we have depended on that for our livelihood,” said Jonee Peters, a member of the coalition and the executive director of the Conservation Council for Hawaiʻi.

“We worked within our environments to protect that, to nurture it, and to have us survive. We need to protect it because if not, what are we going to do? We’re on an island stuck in the middle of the Pacific, and that's the bottom line.”

Other members of the coalition hope these bills will bring in roughly 100 million each year, according to Jack Kittinger of Conservation International. This would start to counteract the reported $560 million annual deficit in what the state needs to properly attack climate change and sustain natural resources.

“That deficit needs to be filled, or we’re just going to continue losing our beaches, reefs, and forests,” Kittinger said. “Using visitor fees to fund conservation is something that over a dozen geographies do, and it’s worked really well. It’s a proven method, and it’s something that Hawaiʻi should absolutely do.”

Madelyn McKeague, a member of the CAN coalition, stated that many tourists are already on board with financially contributing to protect the land.

“Residents and visitors alike know that our land is our kuleana, our responsibility,” she said. “How we get visitors involved in caring for our ʻāina is through the environmental stewardship fee. Visitors come here and they see the beauty, and they understand that it is their responsibility too.”

With the uncertainty around federal funding over recent weeks, advocates are worried that essential workers, research, and labor will be lost — heavily impairing their climate fight.

“It’s hard to say exactly what the future looks like, but what we do know is that what’s already happening is making the work that we’re committed to a whole lot harder.”

The bills await conference committee, where both chambers must agree on the bills' final language for them to get a final floor vote.

Ashley Mizuo contributed to this report.