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In recent years, attempts to create a mostly visitor-paid fee to help tackle �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ��’s daunting climate and conservation challenges have resembled the classic gag from the comic.

Each year, Gov. Josh Green proclaims the fee one of his top legislative priorities. Each year, legislators seem receptive and ready to pass that fee.

Then, each year, legislators pull the proposal back at the last minute, opting not to pass it after all.

One of the biggest questions heading into the 2025 legislative session is whether advance talks among key interests, particularly the hotel industry, were productive enough to finally get some sort of climate-related fee passed — or if Lucy will again pull away the football.

This year, a new volunteer “” of experts has been studying �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ��’s climate-change issues more closely on Green’s behalf and talking to legislators about why the state would need such a visitor fee.

That group is poised to release a white paper this week with three possible approaches from which the Legislature could choose, Green said, or use parts of all three to help better protect �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ��’s natural resources.

Those options include using the interest collected from the state’s rainy day fund, which Green said could raise around $50 million annually, or increasing the state’s transient accommodations to a rate as high as 12%.

The third proposal involves creating a one-time fee for visitors — perhaps good for a year and collected via an electronic  — to access scenic hikes, visit popular beaches, check into hotels, rent cars or do other tourism-related activities, Green said.

His message to the Legislature: “Here are three footballs. Kick which one you want.”

How Much Is Enough?

Simply collecting the rainy day fund interest won’t meet the state’s climate-related resiliency and disaster needs, however. This year, Green has put that at around $200 million annually, although he has yet to provide specifics.

�Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ�� saw more than and is on pace to hit a similar number this year. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Aloha State saw nearly 10.4 visitors, according to the state’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

The pandemic also helped illustrate the impact that heavy tourism has on popular �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ�� spots, as destinations such as Hanauma Bay showed immediate signs of improvement once visitors stopped arriving there.

A 2019 study by the nongovernmental group estimated that �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ�� would need an additional $360 million each year to make up for visitor impacts on the state’s natural resources.

The �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ�� green fee advocacy coalition Care For ʻĀina Now plans to share on Wednesday a new, updated study, according to group member Jack Kittinger, and it will show that estimated $360 million gap from five years has ago has further widened.

Update: On Wednesday, Care For ʻĀina presented findings from an updated study showing a conservation gap of at least $560 million for �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ��. That gap could be as large as $1.69 billion based on the highest possible scenario, according to the new study.

Still, Kittinger said, Care For ʻĀina Now and other green fee supporters would consider it a major win if state leaders managed to pass a $200 million visitor fee to boost �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ��’s conservation and resiliency needs.

He considers 2025 a lot more promising than 2024, when state lawmakers were too busy dealing with Lahaina wildfire recovery efforts. Plus, Kittinger added, 2024 was an election year, which likely made some Legislators skittish about approving a new fee.

“We are leaning into it,” Kittinger said of his group’s push to get the fee in place. This session has “a lot more window of opportunity.”

After the Senate killed the proposed fee last year, Rep. Linda Ichiyama, then the House’s Water and Land Committee chair, said there should be a “real heart-to-heart conversation” with local tourism leaders ahead of this upcoming session on a green fee would be necessary.

Those talks, she said, could resemble the conversations that helped persuade marine tourism operators to support a new $1 ocean stewardship fee to better protect �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ��’s fragile marine areas.

Will The Tourist Lobby Agree?

�Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ�� Tourism and Lodging Association CEO Mufi Hannemann said earlier this week that he and other industry leaders have had a series of talks with Green’s Climate Advisory Team. The situation, he said, remains fluid.

“What we’re saying is, ‘OK, this is a new proposal, let’s see what you guys have in mind.’ We’re open to having a discussion… but at the end of the day there also has to be an agreement with the Legislature.”

Specifically, Hannemann said, any potential increase of the state’s 10.25% transient accommodations tax should provide some direct benefit for the industry itself, along with the state’s climate needs.

Hannemann said that he still prefers using a site-specific fee akin to the so-called Hanauma Bay model, where visitors to Oʻahu pay to access that site.

“We continue to feel that’s where this should go,” Hannemann said, “but we understand that may not be enough.”

Care for ʻĀina Now’s members would like the fees collected to be kept in a special fund and for a special oversight committee to help decide where those dollars get spent. That group could include members of both the conservation community and the tourism industry, Kittinger said.

In the wake of Lahaina’s deadly 2023 wildfire, Green last year called for at least half of the proposed green fee proceeds to go toward a state disaster recovery fund, or disaster insurance. Having such a safety net in place, he said, would reassure future investors when they assess whether it’s too risky to do business in �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ��.

Kittinger, meanwhile, said he believes the best possible insurance for �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ�� would be to restore its natural resources and ecosystems, including the arid slopes above Lahaina where invasive grasses fueled the devastation.

“Nothing,” he said, “brought that into sharper focus than the Lahaina wildfire.”

Civil Beat’s coverage of climate change is supported by The Healy Foundation, Marisla Fund of the Hawaii Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.