It appears the state is looking to balance the budget on the backs of the fat cats. Makes sense when the Feds aren't lending much of a hand anymore, so can't offset the bills to the future generations. This leaves Hawai'i needing to look to those most able to pay in the here and now.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2026/03/bills-...es-hawaii/
"In the past two weeks the state House has also given preliminary approval to bills that would increase the state capital gains tax, increase liquor taxes and impose a new tax on sales of gasoline-powered vehicles — and forwarded each of those proposals to the Senate.
The House also backed a bill for a ballot question that would ask Hawaiʻi voters to amend the state constitution to allow the state to impose a property tax surcharge on investment properties to help finance public education. Currently the constitution allows only the counties to levy property taxes.
...
House Finance Committee Chair Chris Todd told Civil Beat that most of the tax bills advancing this year are aimed at people with very high incomes, or the visitor industry. He considers them “options on the table” for the Legislature to use to preserve the 2024 income tax cuts for everyone else.
...
Two years ago the House and Senate voted unanimously for a multibillion-dollar series of income tax cuts for all Hawaiʻi tax filers that was to roll out over eight years, an achievement legislators proudly declared to be the largest tax cut in state history. Gov. Josh Green promptly signed that tax cut bill into law.
State taxpayers have already benefited from the first three phases of those income tax reductions — in 2024, 2025 and this year — but Green is now proposing the state “pause” the next five years of scheduled tax cuts.
The problem, Todd said, is the experts’ projections of state tax collections in the years ahead have been revised downward by $3.5 billion, mostly as “a direct result of global uncertainty, declining consumer confidence and worrying trends in our tourism-based economy.”
At the same time state expenses are projected to increase, Todd said in an interview. That is partly because state government must hire new employees to handle tasks the federal government is offloading on the states, and also to cover costs such as negotiated pay raises for public workers in the years ahead.
Rather than suspend the scheduled tax cuts for everyone as Green proposed, the House and Senate each crafted bills this year that seek to preserve the scheduled income tax cuts for low- and moderate-income households, while suspending the tax cuts or actually increasing taxes for households with the highest incomes.
...
The House proposal in House Bill 2306 would leave in place the scheduled increases in the standard deductions that all income tax filers claim, but suspend a series of adjustments in income tax brackets that were part of the 2024 tax package.
...
At the same time, the House proposal in HB 2306 would increase the top marginal income tax rates for the wealthiest Hawaiʻi taxpayers in the top three income tax brackets.
...
The Senate is proposing some similar changes in Senate Bill 3125, which would also maintain the scheduled increases in the standard income tax deductions from the 2024 law.
However, the Senate draft differs from the House version because it would also increase the tax brackets for lower- and middle-income taxpayers as called for in the 2024 tax package.
In other words, under the Senate proposal low- and middle-income taxpayers would enjoy the full benefits from the tax bracket and tax deduction changes in the 2024 tax package, while wealthier taxpayers would see less benefit.
...
The House gave preliminary approval to House Bill 2049, which would increase conveyance taxes on sales of homes worth more than $2.2 million, and impose “significant increases on the higher value properties,” according to Housing Commitee Chair Luke Evslin, the lead sponsor of of the bill.
The measure would raise an extra $170 million in new taxes for the state, he said, but would reduce the conveyance tax or leave it unchanged for 75% of home sales in Hawaiʻi.
...
Also moving through the Legislature is a measure to overhaul and increase the state liquor tax in a way the state Tax Department estimates could boost tax collections by almost $30 million a year.
House Bill 1991 was opposed by craft brewers from across the state as well as the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii and the Retail Merchants of Hawaii, which argued the tax increase would hurt small businesses at a time when local companies are struggling with high operating costs.
The bill is backed by the Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition and the Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute, which cited studies showing increasing taxes on alcohol reduces consumption. The last Hawaiʻi liquor tax increase was in 1998.
Proposals to increase the state capital gains tax surface at the Legislature almost every year, and this year lawmakers advanced House Bill 1850 in an effort to boost that tax on profits from the sale of assets such as real estate, stocks or bonds.
...
House Bill 2147 proposes to put a question on the ballot this fall asking Hawaiʻi voters to authorize that state surcharge for schools on investment properties valued at $3 million of more. The measure was approved by the state House on March 6, but has not yet been scheduled for a hearing in the Senate.
...
Yet another tax bill that is advancing this year is House Bill 2030, which would impose a new tax on sales of many gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles to finance consumer rebates to encourage people to buy electric vehicles.
That measure would tax sales of gasoline vehicles according to a schedule that imposes higher fees for less efficient vehicles that travel fewer miles per gallon, and use money collected via that new tax to pay out rebates to consumers who buy or lease new electric vehicles and hybrids.
...
House Bill 2604 would impose a fee of $1 per ticket on public, commercial events where the ticket price is $35 or more. Performances by public schools, the University of Hawaiʻi, and nonprofit organizations would be exempt.
...
Woo, with the Hawaiʻi Children’s Action Network, said the unusually large number of tax bills still in play at the Legislature this year has a lot to do with recent actions by the federal government.
“I think the biggest difference this session is the changes in the federal administration and the funding coming from Washington, D.C.,” she said. “We know that a lot of the programs that support our working families are threatened with cuts,” or the costs of those programs are being shifted to the state."
(sorry for the numerous highlight quotes - still much more at link)
https://www.civilbeat.org/2026/03/bills-...es-hawaii/
"In the past two weeks the state House has also given preliminary approval to bills that would increase the state capital gains tax, increase liquor taxes and impose a new tax on sales of gasoline-powered vehicles — and forwarded each of those proposals to the Senate.
The House also backed a bill for a ballot question that would ask Hawaiʻi voters to amend the state constitution to allow the state to impose a property tax surcharge on investment properties to help finance public education. Currently the constitution allows only the counties to levy property taxes.
...
House Finance Committee Chair Chris Todd told Civil Beat that most of the tax bills advancing this year are aimed at people with very high incomes, or the visitor industry. He considers them “options on the table” for the Legislature to use to preserve the 2024 income tax cuts for everyone else.
...
Two years ago the House and Senate voted unanimously for a multibillion-dollar series of income tax cuts for all Hawaiʻi tax filers that was to roll out over eight years, an achievement legislators proudly declared to be the largest tax cut in state history. Gov. Josh Green promptly signed that tax cut bill into law.
State taxpayers have already benefited from the first three phases of those income tax reductions — in 2024, 2025 and this year — but Green is now proposing the state “pause” the next five years of scheduled tax cuts.
The problem, Todd said, is the experts’ projections of state tax collections in the years ahead have been revised downward by $3.5 billion, mostly as “a direct result of global uncertainty, declining consumer confidence and worrying trends in our tourism-based economy.”
At the same time state expenses are projected to increase, Todd said in an interview. That is partly because state government must hire new employees to handle tasks the federal government is offloading on the states, and also to cover costs such as negotiated pay raises for public workers in the years ahead.
Rather than suspend the scheduled tax cuts for everyone as Green proposed, the House and Senate each crafted bills this year that seek to preserve the scheduled income tax cuts for low- and moderate-income households, while suspending the tax cuts or actually increasing taxes for households with the highest incomes.
...
The House proposal in House Bill 2306 would leave in place the scheduled increases in the standard deductions that all income tax filers claim, but suspend a series of adjustments in income tax brackets that were part of the 2024 tax package.
...
At the same time, the House proposal in HB 2306 would increase the top marginal income tax rates for the wealthiest Hawaiʻi taxpayers in the top three income tax brackets.
...
The Senate is proposing some similar changes in Senate Bill 3125, which would also maintain the scheduled increases in the standard income tax deductions from the 2024 law.
However, the Senate draft differs from the House version because it would also increase the tax brackets for lower- and middle-income taxpayers as called for in the 2024 tax package.
In other words, under the Senate proposal low- and middle-income taxpayers would enjoy the full benefits from the tax bracket and tax deduction changes in the 2024 tax package, while wealthier taxpayers would see less benefit.
...
The House gave preliminary approval to House Bill 2049, which would increase conveyance taxes on sales of homes worth more than $2.2 million, and impose “significant increases on the higher value properties,” according to Housing Commitee Chair Luke Evslin, the lead sponsor of of the bill.
The measure would raise an extra $170 million in new taxes for the state, he said, but would reduce the conveyance tax or leave it unchanged for 75% of home sales in Hawaiʻi.
...
Also moving through the Legislature is a measure to overhaul and increase the state liquor tax in a way the state Tax Department estimates could boost tax collections by almost $30 million a year.
House Bill 1991 was opposed by craft brewers from across the state as well as the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii and the Retail Merchants of Hawaii, which argued the tax increase would hurt small businesses at a time when local companies are struggling with high operating costs.
The bill is backed by the Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition and the Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute, which cited studies showing increasing taxes on alcohol reduces consumption. The last Hawaiʻi liquor tax increase was in 1998.
Proposals to increase the state capital gains tax surface at the Legislature almost every year, and this year lawmakers advanced House Bill 1850 in an effort to boost that tax on profits from the sale of assets such as real estate, stocks or bonds.
...
House Bill 2147 proposes to put a question on the ballot this fall asking Hawaiʻi voters to authorize that state surcharge for schools on investment properties valued at $3 million of more. The measure was approved by the state House on March 6, but has not yet been scheduled for a hearing in the Senate.
...
Yet another tax bill that is advancing this year is House Bill 2030, which would impose a new tax on sales of many gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles to finance consumer rebates to encourage people to buy electric vehicles.
That measure would tax sales of gasoline vehicles according to a schedule that imposes higher fees for less efficient vehicles that travel fewer miles per gallon, and use money collected via that new tax to pay out rebates to consumers who buy or lease new electric vehicles and hybrids.
...
House Bill 2604 would impose a fee of $1 per ticket on public, commercial events where the ticket price is $35 or more. Performances by public schools, the University of Hawaiʻi, and nonprofit organizations would be exempt.
...
Woo, with the Hawaiʻi Children’s Action Network, said the unusually large number of tax bills still in play at the Legislature this year has a lot to do with recent actions by the federal government.
“I think the biggest difference this session is the changes in the federal administration and the funding coming from Washington, D.C.,” she said. “We know that a lot of the programs that support our working families are threatened with cuts,” or the costs of those programs are being shifted to the state."
(sorry for the numerous highlight quotes - still much more at link)
