A Hawaiʻi vacation will cost you more in the near future thanks to a new “green fee” that the governor signed into law today.
||| FROM HONOLULU CIVIL BEAT |||
Hawaiʻi has officially become the first U.S. state to enact a so-called “green fee” — a charge added onto hotel room stays and other short-term visits to help protect the local environment and address the growing impacts of climate change.
Gov. Josh Green signed the fee into law Tuesday after years of unsuccessfully urging the Legislature to pass it. Set to take effect next year, the fee could raise around $100 million annually, state officials estimate, a portion which will go toward’s Hawaiʻi’s response to future disasters similar to the 2023 Lahaina wildfire.
“It’s a historic piece of legislation. No other state has done something of this magnitude to have an impact fee that goes directly to deal with climate change,” Green said earlier this month once it was clear lawmakers would approve it at last. “We’ve always known we had to take on climate change, but we had to have a devoted revenue stream, a devoted source of real dollars.”
That revenue stream will come from a .75% increase on the tax Hawaiʻi visitors pay on their nightly hotel and short-term stays. The uptick raises the state’s transient accommodations tax, or TAT, to 10%. Visitors already pay an additional 3% TAT on their stays to the counties.
Overall, the move aims to make Hawaiʻi’s reefs, beaches, trails, mountains and other unique yet vulnerable environments more resilient to heavier storms, more severe droughts and other challenges linked to the changing climate.
It also seeks to avoid making locals pay the entire price of that damage. Green and other supporters say the fee on hotel stays, cruise ship cabins and short-term rentals is justified because there’s a link between the nearly 10 million visitors who fly to Hawaiʻi each year and the island state’s climate change and environment issues.
**If you are reading theOrcasonian for free, thank your fellow islanders. If you would like to support theOrcasonian CLICK HERE to set your modestly-priced, voluntary subscription. Otherwise, no worries; we’re happy to share with you.**
We should figure out a way to do this on the island. Why should locals pay extra for anything during the summer. Put a 10% tax on hotels, short term rentals, car rentals, even restaurant food, tours or kayak rentals etc etc.. The monies could be used in numerous ways on island to help out our locals.
Studies show that charging a “tourist tax” that is then used to offset the impacts of overtoursim, whether it be impacts that are related to the environment, critical services, or a community’s natural resources… doesn’t mean a drop in the numbers of tourists, and therefore does not equate to a decrease in the impacts related to overtourism. Only a decrease in the number of tourists can do that. More tourists will always equal the need for more infrastructure, and will always result in more negative impacts.
Modern free-range tourism is deemed a “wicked problem” precisely because it is almost entirely unmanageable. The way I understand it organized tour groups like bicycle groups and Hostel pay a county permit tax. People who stay overnight in a hotel room, VRBO or other rental pay a bed tax (a portion goes to the state) that goes into the lodging tax that is doled out to local organizations by a commission that includes the Visitors Bureau where sums must be for (you guessed it) TOURISM PROMOTION. This county is just in the beginning of actively managing a capped number of VRBOs that includes enforcement, inspections and permits.
The small number of people who come out for a day or a few staying with family or friends are not involuntarily charged anything depending upon their activities. Nor should they be. But the vast number of summer tourists that clog our dysfunctional ferry system. make it a long chancy stay on the parking area in Anacortes if you drop a reservation or mess up, cannot be charged different fares due to our state constitution. Friday Harbor is widely recognized as no place to be in July or August unless you enjoy jaywalking, wandering,” hey what’s the hurry I am on vacation” herds.
The only serious constraint in what is now clearly a summer boom town are the capacities of daily ferries and the numbers of beds or campsites to purchase and that still results in over-tourism with plenty of negative externalities. Many of our summer visitors are day tripping families who HOPEFULLY go on guided kayak outtings, buy lunch and dinner out and take home some locally made souveniers otherwise they are free-riders. Many (like my middle class family when I was a kid) probably shop COSTCO and fill a cooler and come over literally paying nothing extra for a fine boat and day in the islands.
Small increases in local sales tax is targeted at visitors but we all pay it. Point 1 percent now goes to affordable housing and human resource services that are badly needed out here in large part due to the summer tourist plague that has welcomed open arms for far too long.
Thousands of picturesque communities around the world are plagued by over-tourism often resulting in gross over use of fresh water, resources and peace and quiet not to speak of cultures. It is a wicked problem and we now know cannot be managed even after a failed Destination Management Plan. My biggest beef is that the powers that be and most brick and mortar businesses have catered to this boom and bust cycle for so long that we really have few other economic sector beyond high end residential construction that pays good wages, makes local purchases and pays a large materials sales tax.
We are in a dead end canyon socio-economically with very troubling times ahead without diversified, annual home grown economic sectors to sustain local populations of people and families that can withstand preterbations. Tourism is going to be on a downward spiral regardless of how many cheer leaders we have out here once near future realities hit home.
Too bad Washington’s tourist tax bill failed in the legislature. But as Michael Johnson has said, it won’t solve the problem of over-tourism anyway.
I think the root of the problem is NOT the tourists themselves; don’t blame them! They are victims of the multifaceted Industry of unlimited growth as much as the locals in that they are courted with endless ads by VRBO, which no doubt has a huge group of lobbyists to fight any kind of REAL reform or corralling them and their subsidiaries.
The “Industry” parts of the whole are: The Real Estate Industry, the high-end Development/Building Industry, VRBO – that behemoth hydra-headed corporation which plasters youtube and other platforms with endless ads; Locals who are forced, or swayed, to “cash in” and sell their only true wealth – the land itself and the waters and watersheds that support all life in and on them. The whale watch industry – one business in particular who shall not be named if I don’t want to be taken to court for slander, even though we all know their scurrilous reputation, including toward their employees and the poor whales themselves.
in case people aren’t noticing the interconnections of this complex web of selling us and selling out, San Juan County is number one in income disparity. The Covid ‘industry ‘not only wrecked the economy all over the place including the San Juans, but also ‘made’ 600 new billionaires. People aren’t talking about either of these things.
Who’s buying everything up now aren’t middle class or even upper class people anymore but primarily, “investment’ individuals and companies with no interest in living here, in the community, affordability, quality of life, and most of all, the health of environments and crucial ecosystems, including forests. Of course there are exceptions; bless them, every one. May they tell their like-minded and like-hearted friends, multiply and prosper in all the ways that take care of things rather than exploit them, and be a part of this community. There are many who help keep the nonprofits doing the good works they do, but this often comes with a double edged sword of control.
The juggernaut of unlimited, uncontrolled growth is a gravy train for too many people to want to change course. Sure, there’s lip service about eco tourism -but that’s all it is. Add to the above-mentioned is the tech industry that pushes 100% cell phone coverage, EMFs be damned, broadband, for everyone but you gotta pay and soon everyone who can’t afford to be behind a paywall for everything will be left in the dust. We need more and more of everything; more groceries, bigger delivery trucks ripping up the mature and historic trees on narrow roads never meant for these kinds of loads, corporations pushing us all toward a cashless society and ironically, under the guise of influencers and ‘innovation,’ loss of resiliency, creativity, applied arts skills that are actually useful, Critical Thinking and intelligent discussion and debate, reduced quality of life on every level, a distracted, uptight populace working harder for less and less affordability or even a chance to rent in an exorbitant rental market distance learning, and separation of the People. This is all connected. It’s the New Colonialism. Jet setters are part of this too.
So no. tourists are the fallout from all of this – just as we are – and are not to blame. They too are victims of a system of exploitation and conquering.
Politicians are bought off, or threatened with lawsuits if they stand up for us or the lands and waters. Indigenous voices and their Tribal; traditions that worked to care for the earth are ignored or given meaningless lip service – yet not more. Like some of their lands back.
How is this all connected? It’s easy to see. How many year-round businesses have been allowed, or permitted? We have the ‘safety’ industry cutting down the last of the forest and trees around over-developed cluster housing in UGAs that never should have been UGAs or forced into ridiculous densities we are seeing. We have the “insurance” industry – you have to pay to have it and you pay for not having it. Let’s not forget the privately owned utilities – which, in a taxing district, never should have been allowed in the first place – and guess who pays? The middle class and working poor who live in the UGAs; they pay for all the infrastructure. Now we have a Health/Hospital District, another ‘safety’ district, supported by a huge levy that only passed because of low voter turnout in November, therefore needing less voters and a simple majority to pass it. MORE growth and expansion are pushed, and what then, when the economy crashes and there are no service and essential workers to pick up the pieces because they have no place to live? I see the problems and the interconnectedness of them and to me, the roots are all the same: Greed and ignorance, fueled by propaganda and legislation that is anti-environment, anthropocentric, and out of touch with How Life Works. We parrot ‘sustainability’ and have no idea the meaning of the word.
Here’s what I say to the Pimps: We are not a Theme Park. We are not For Sale. This is yet another example of pitting people against the wrong people and not the perps of the system.
Well, that was a rant. I didn’t think I pushed send. Oh well. 44 years of picking up roadkill – literally and metaphorically. What more can I say? Lots, but I’ll spare the good readers.
nice one, Sadie….I get it and agree. Now if we could just figure out what to DO about it all.