January 8, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

Hawaii Daily News Read

Thursday, January 8, 2026

January 8, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 2:19 PM :: 341 Views

OHA Check Register 2024-25—Payroll Drives Spending up 30%

"$35K Bribe? Not Me!" -- Signed by Every House Member Sitting in 2022

$35K Bribe: AG Claims Feds Agree with her Decision to do Nothing

COR: No Recession Coming, Hawaii can afford tax cuts amid upbeat economic outlook

SA: … Hawaii’s economy may be in better shape this year than previously forecast, but state lawmakers should not expect any additional or reduced revenue to work with for the upcoming fiscal year budget.

The state Council on Revenues decided during a meeting Wednesday to leave unchanged its prior forecast for state general fund revenue in the current and next fiscal years.

That means the Legislature will need to base its budget for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, largely on the council’s projection for roughly $9.7 billion in general fund revenue representing a 2.0% increase over an estimated $9.5 billion for the current fiscal year….

For the current fiscal year, which began six months ago, the council’s projection for $9.5 billion in revenue represents a 4.7% decline driven almost entirely by state tax cuts that began in 2025 and are being phased in annually through 2031.

The tax cut impact for the current fiscal year is expected to be about $600 million, according to the state Tax Department. However, General Excise Tax collections in the current fiscal year through November are up 7.2%, offsetting some of the revenue loss from income taxes. Transient Accommodations Tax collections also were up 1.8% during the same period.

Carl Bonham, a council member and director of the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, said during the meeting that he is more optimistic about Hawaii’s economy than he was when the council last met in September.

Additionally, UHERO on Dec. 12 published a forecast for the local economy that anticipated a mild recession and weak recovery this year, but now Bonham doubts that such a downturn will happen….

Much of the optimism stems from tourism spending that grew last year despite visitor arrivals being flat….

read … Hawaii tax revenue forecast stable amid upbeat economic outlook | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

$35K Mystery Payment: Bill Would Extend Time To Prosecute

HNN: … A new law would allow prosecutors more time to charge suspects accused of campaign spending violations.

This comes after recent cases involving local politicians who may have gotten away with related crimes because too much time had passed.

Currently, a suspect can be charged with a campaign spending violation only if it’s been less than five years since the incident.

Two bills, one in the House and one in the Senate, aim to change this window.

Alexander Silvert, a retired federal public defender, is asking the House to introduce a new law.

If it passes, the statute of limitations would run from the time the crime was discovered rather than from the time it was committed. This would give prosecutors more time to bring charges.

Terri Ann Otani, the former secretary of a politically connected engineering firm, is facing trial in April for allegedly making donations to a political candidate under her relatives’ names.

Details were made public during a separate bribery case in 2024, when Otani’s relatives, including her sister and niece, testified that they did not know about tens of thousands of dollars in donations that were made using their names.

But Otani was only charged for the most recent contributions because the others were apparently too old and the statute of limitations had run out….

read … Legislation aims to close loophole for campaign finance criminal cases

Bill To Un-Steal Thousands Of Maui Vacation Rentals Heads To Planning Commissions for 120 days

CB: … Even though the council expressed mixed views on the legislation and whether it should be amended further, only Keani Rawlins-Fernandez of Molokaʻi voted against forwarding the bill — with minor language adjustments — on to the Maui, Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi planning commissions for review. The commissions have the next 120 days to do their review and send the bill back to the council with any recommendations.

“We’re being rushed to move this along and to not have a full and complete discussion. All the language of what we’re sending the planning commissions is not as fully baked as it could be, and that was what I was hoping we would avoid,” she said. “My hope is that in committee we can continue to have these discussions to figure out what would be the best way to achieve the desires of all the council members.”

Rawlins-Fernandez and council member Tamara Paltin of West Maui proposed amendments to address concerns related to properties expected to be affected by sea level rise in the coming decades and prevent the acceleration of erosion. In 5-4 votes, the council rejected those measures.

Council members including the newly seated Kauanoe Batangan, who replaced the late Tasha Kama, argued that those issues would be better addressed in separate legislation.

“I would prefer to keep the zoning in the code clean and to take these up through a different legislative vehicle,” said Batangan, who was sworn in Monday.

The council first took up the rezoning bill, which is based on recommendations made by a Temporary Investigative Group for Bill 9, during a meeting last month. When council members couldn’t agree on whether they should discuss possible amendments to the legislation before sending it to the planning commissions, they punted further discussions on the topic to the new year.….

SA: Vacation rental exemptions move to Maui planning commissions | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

read … Bill To Save Thousands Of Maui Vacation Rentals Heads To Planning Commissions

PGA Tour to Eliminate All Hawaii Events

GD: … This year, that welcome has been severed to one event, the fallout from a water dispute amid severe drought forcing the tour in October to cancel its season-opening Sentry at a browned-out Plantation Course at Kapalua. What's more, next week's Sony Open at Waialae could deliver an Aloha of a different sort, as the tour may bid Hawaii farewell for good.

(TRANSLATION: A knock-on achievement for water wars--after denying firefighting water for Lahaina.)

The PGA Tour stands at an inflection point. New CEO Brian Rolapp and the tour's private-equity architects at Strategic Sports Group are engineering a fundamental reimagining of professional golf's construction. Among the propositions is a truncated elite schedule that would push the season's start deeper into the calendar year. (The tournaments excluded from this compressed 20-something slate may not vanish. Instead, they could be relegated to a subsidiary tier—either folded into an expanded Korn Ferry Tour or placed in a hybrid circuit occupying the space between the two tours, with the fall season absorbed into this new division.) Should this proposal advance—potentially as early as 2027—the calendar would contract significantly. Multiple sources with direct knowledge of these deliberations have told Golf Digest that both Hawaiian events, the Sentry and Sony Open, face elimination….

read … Is this the end of the PGA Tour's Hawaiian swing? On the uncertain future of Kapalua | Golf News and Tour Information | GolfDigest.com

Sewer fee hikes begin

SA: … Well, open your eyes and hold your nose — as all of Oahu is now paying more for sewer fees, under new annual increases that started on Jan. 1 and run through 2031. This year, ratepayers will see a 6% hike in sewer bills, followed by annual increases of 7.5%, 8.5%, then four years each of 9% increases. Starting 2033, sewer fees would rise by 3% every year….

read … Editorial: Don’t raise stink on sewer fee hike | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Need A Doctor? Hawaiʻi's Physician Shortage Keeps Getting Worse

CB: … Hawaiʻi’s chronic shortage of physicians went from bad to worse in 2025, and when the state’s geography and the needs of its rural residents are taken into account, it got worse yet.

That’s according to the most recent report to the state Legislature from the Hawaiʻi Physician Workforce Assessment Project of the University of Hawaiʻi’s John A. Burns School of Medicine. The project began in 2010.

The report found that of 12,688 licensed physicians in Hawaiʻi less than a third — 3,647 — provide patient care. Add to that the fact that not all doctors practice full time and the actual number of full-time physicians serving patients in 2025 penciled out to just over 3,000.

That’s down slightly from 2024 — and 644 doctors short of the need, the report said.

The gap grows to 833 full-time physicians when the state’s geography is factored in. That’s because specialties such as intensive and emergency care and psychiatry cannot easily be shared across the islands. An emergency room physician on Oʻahu doesn’t fill the need for emergency room physicians on neighbor islands, for example .…

read … Need A Doctor? Hawaiʻi's Physician Shortage Keeps Getting Worse - Honolulu Civil Beat

$30 Million Wasted on Free Food and Salaries: Hawaiʻi Island Homeless Population Still Grew

CB: … Nearly four years ago, the Hawaiʻi County Council tackled the local homeless population problem in a big way, earmarking the first funding of what would become $33 million.

(CLUE: Free food and blankets and free glass pipes and needles. Enabling, not ending.)

The results have been disappointing, and council support for the effort seems to be eroding. Last month a new request for another $6 million for outreach and other homeless programs barely made it through on a 5-4 council vote.

(CLUE: Just like California.)

And Kaneali‘i-Kleinfelder cited reports that California has spent $24 billion in five years trying to address homelessness, yet homelessness has increased there, too….

(See? Told you.)

“I’m here pondering,” said Puna council member Ashley Kierkiewicz during a discussion of the latest round of homelessness funding. “Has the tens of millions of dollars that Hawaiʻi County has invested in this program, have we actually made a dent? Are we better off as a community?”

(CLUE: The homeless are 100% meth addicts. They only want their next rock. They must be FORCED into shelter.)

“Because when I’m outside and I’m walking through communities of downtown Pāhoa and downtown Hilo, it doesn’t look like we’re better off,” she said. “I have to recognize the reality of what we are seeing.” …

(But they spent another $6M.)

The council members’ views on homelessness matter because county funds for homeless programs are distributed to local nonprofits from the county’s Homelessness and Housing Fund. That fund will expire in 2027 unless the council votes to extend it.

Council member Heather Kimball, who represents the Hāmākua Coast, voted in favor of continuing the county grant funding last month but said she wants an audit to scrutinize both the details of how the county money has been spent and the effectiveness of the effort. She expects her audit proposal will come before the council later this month….

Menino said the county should continue the Homelessness and Housing Fund.

She cited figures from Bridging the Gap Hawaiʻi that show HOPE Services and other social service agencies helped 552 people transition from homelessness to permanent housing on the Big Island last fiscal year.

“Our data shows that 74% of the people that we touch are going into housing,” Menino said. “People are staying housed when there’s support.”

(CLUE: They are running a retirement system for bums who are aging out of street life. The 552 are the ONLY people they can ever get on a voluntary basis. Only FORCE can get drug addicts off the street and into treatment. Reopen the insane asylums. Put the insane back inside.)

read … $30 Million Invested. Hawaiʻi Island Homeless Population Still Grew

Mayor Blangiardi signs Honolulu Police Department media access bill

SA: … Mayor Rick Blangiardi has signed a bill into law requiring the Honolulu Police Department to release timely and accurate information to selected news outlets during major public safety incidents.

Blangiardi’s Dec. 22 approval of Bill 46 means HPD is expected to use its newly- created media crime alert system to provide limited media access to its radio communications.

The measure mandates the police chief to “adopt and implement a strategic plan and internal procedures for the timely release of certain public information to the media and the public, which must involve a written agreement between the department and local media outlets for the department to provide local media outlets with access to timely emergency messaging alerts; or to certain radio communications.” …

read … Mayor Blangiardi signs Honolulu Police Department media access bill | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Hawaiian Home Lands seeks $15M for geothermal exploration

HNN: … The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands plans to ask the state legislature for $15 million over three years to investigate and identify geothermal resources….

TG: $15 million in state funding sought for geothermal exploration in Hawaii

read … Hawaiian Home Lands seeks $15M for geothermal exploration

BLNR to discuss proposed Kapolei hydrogen scheme

ASD: … The Hawai‘i Board of Land and Natural Resources will consider an application by the Delaware-based Eurus Energy America LLC to build a facility in within Kapolei’s Campbell Industrial Park that would extract hydrogen from water.

The facility, according to a Department of Land and Natural Resources project document, would be constructed on a 100-acre government-owned parcel in Kapolei, directly adjacent to another parcel where the Honolulu Board of Water Supply has proposed to build a desalination plant.

Currently, the lot is owned by the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity and is unused, having previously been used as a feedlot. In 2022, DAB discovered tenants had been misusing the property by storing abandoned vehicles and equipment on the site, leading to their eviction. Now, DLNR seeks to take over most of the parcel from DAB for renewable energy development.

About 90 of the 100 acres would house a photovoltaic panel array capable of generating about 20 megawatts of electricity. That energy would then power electrolyzers and other equipment that would strip hydrogen from recycled water via an existing Board of Water Supply pipeline….

The project document estimates that the facility could produce between 500,000 and 800,000 kilograms of hydrogen per year, enough to fuel a semi-truck for up to 7 million miles, according to Department of Energy estimates….

(100 acres for this? LOL!)

read … BLNR to discuss proposed Kapolei hydrogen plant

DFS pulls out of Hawaii after more than 60 years

KHON: … They are set to close their two locations at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, Maui Airport location and Waikiki location by the end of March.

“That duty-free experience for the international traveler, that void will be difficult,” said Kealii Haverly, Retail Merchants of Hawaii. “And then in Waikiki, of course, that grand experience of the DFS experience right there in the heart of Waikiki. That’s a big loss.”

DOT officials confirmed the closure and said a new company is working to take over the airport locations as soon as DFS closes. It is unknown, however, what will fill the void in Waikiki….

PBN: DFS Group closing Hawaii stores after 63 years in Islands - Pacific Business News

read … DFS pulls out of Hawaii after more than 60 years

Waikiki drones to hunt crime?

KHON: … A new project for the Department of Law Enforcement in collaboration with WBID is drones, which will bring a much wider set of eyes.

“You’ll see regular drones flying around. What a drone does, it will typically be an officer or deputy arriving on scene. The layout for Waikiki would be that you would have a drone there within 45 seconds,” said Mike Lambert, Department of Law Enforcement Director.

The DLE says that these drones will fly mainly out of sight through Waikiki, and collect footage that’ll help identify crimes such as shoplifting, and notify police when necessary.

“It allows us to track patterns, let’s say if a crime does occur, we would have footage of those open areas and we may be able to identify a suspect down the road,” explained Lambert. “Without thy type of technology, if somebody didn’t get them on their own camera, that opportunity is lost.” …

read … Crime is down in Waikiki with plans to further reduce

Top Hawaii Lawmaker Previews Bill To Let Voters Decide On Marijuana Legalization At The Ballot

MM: … House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee Chairman David Tarnas (D) previewed the plan in an interview with Honolulu Civil Beat that was published on Monday. Given the legislature’s evident reluctance to end prohibition on its own despite public support for legalization, he said the issue ought to be decided by voters.

“This is kicking this particular policy decision—very selectively—to the public for a decision,” Tarnas, who has previously sponsored legalization and other marijuana reform bills, said….

read … Top Hawaii Lawmaker Previews Bill To Let Voters Decide On Marijuana Legalization At The Ballot - Marijuana Moment

Gabbard MIA on Venezuela operation amid tensions over Trump policy

MSN: … President Donald Trump’s top national security advisers in recent days have outdone one another, publicly extolling his bold decision to launch the risky military raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. But one key figure has been largely absent from public view: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard….

read … Gabbard MIA on Venezuela operation amid tensions over Trump policy

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