Green Angels to spend visitor impact fees on self insurance as well as climate change

[Punatang]

ETA title:  title has evolved with the story.

Green angles Angels to spend visitor impact fees on self insurance instead of as well as climate change

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"Instead of addressing sea-level rise and climate change, Gov. Josh Green now wants income from a proposed visitor impact fee to help the state provide its own insurance to victims of future disasters following the Aug. 8, 2023, Maui wildfires...

...As Hawaii tourism numbers continue to climb following the COVID-19 pandemic, state legislators are expected to again consider the possibility of charging tourists a special fee that was originally intended to offset their impacts on the environment and help the state respond to climate change.
The idea remains popular in a state of 1.4 million people who pushed back against the record-setting 10 million tourists who visited just before the pandemic hit in 2020.

Last session, legislators liked the idea of a new tourism fee in concept but could not agree on how much to charge — or how — and pledged to revisit the idea when the next session begins in January.
Now Green wants to use the potential income to help the state borrow money to provide its own disaster insurance for local residents and businesses through a “captive insurance” program he wants to develop on a large scale."



By Dan Nakaso|Aug. 29th, 2024

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2024/08/2...ui-claims/

[Punatang]

The article was updated with the passage below (bottom).  Josh's phone probably lit up this morning when the article hit.  Mark Glick probably had a fit.  Now it looks like the visitor impact fees will be divided between efforts to address sea-level rise & climate change, and Gov. Green's new captive insurance initiative.  Best of both worlds!  

"Last session, legislators liked the idea of a new tourism fee in concept but could not agree on how much to charge — or how"

Several ideas come to mind.  How much?  Plenty!  How to collect?  I know people (ok really BIG Braddahs) who would absolutely LOVE volunteer to tax tourists the minute they step off the plane.  Instead of a lei they get handed one of those credit card readers the restaurants all have now that they bring to the table.  Volunteers could even let our excited new arrivals select, voluntarily of course, a tip for the tax collector with buttons for 18%, 20%, 50% etc.  I'm sure no one would feel any pressure.  Just spitballing here.  There may be better ideas.


Correction: Gov. Josh Green said a potential visitor impact fee will still be used to address sea-level rise and climate change, in addition to funding a new self insurance program to help insure future disaster victims. A previous version of this story said that sea-level rise and climate change would not be addressed by a visitor impact fee

[TomK]

"Green Angels to spend visitor impact fees on self insurance as well as climate change"

I saw the subject and thought it might be about the USN's Blue Angels display team pretending to go green and taking spectators' money.

[kalianna]

Ha! I thought it was about philanthropic climate activists hiring security guards. :-)

[leilanidude]

efforts to address sea-level rise & climate change
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How is Green proposing to stop the sinking of the islands and the continual movement to the NW?

[bgiles]

Cool! Maybe the Ninth Island will impose a similar tax.

[Punatang]

Ha! I thought it was about philanthropic climate activists hiring security guards. :-) kaliannna

I saw the subject and thought it might be about the USN's Blue Angels display team pretending to go green and taking spectators' money. TomK

No, after the article was revised I had to update the title to reflect the latest storyline.

The original title which accurately reflected the original article was:

Green angles to spend visitor impact fees on self insurance instead of climate change.

[HiloJulie]

Sounds like the Star Advertiser really screwed up this news story from the start. 

[Punatang]

You would think The Star Advertiser would have more clearly "owned" the mistake, if that were the case.  One would think The Gov. would have demanded it.  It all seems rather coy actually.

[HiloJulie]

You would think. 

But as Bill Maher recently said on his HBO Show about how the news media has become, “When Walter Cronkite signed off every night, he would say “And that’s the way it is” versus today’s media that say “And that’s our story and we’re sticking to it!””