HONOLULU — From budget projections to legislative priorities to body language, virtually every topic raised or responded to by legislative leaders on Wednesday’s opening day of the 2024 state Legislature fell beneath the long shadow of last year’s Maui wildfires.

What You Need To Know

  • The House will take up a wide-ranging package of bills to address immediate and long-term needs identified by six working groups convened in the aftermath of the Maui wildfires

  • House Speaker Scott Saiki touted the Red Hill Water Alliance Initiative report, which he said 'charts a pro-active course of remediation so that decades, and perhaps even a century from now, future residents aren’t poisoned by the nearly two million gallons of fuel in the ground slowly making its way to the water table'

  • Senate President Ron Kouchi said fire mitigation and stewardship and management of land will be top priorities, not just for Maui but every island

  • The aftermath of the Maui fires and the ongoing recovery are expected to significantly impact the state budget and individual legislative priorities. However, Kouchi said prescient budgetary decisions and other factors may soften the blow

“This is somewhat of a somber year for us because we know that we have some really serious matters to pick up this year,” said House Speaker Scott Saiki. “Many of them extend from Maui, but those issues also apply to the entire state.”

In an informal preface to his prepared opening-day remarks, Senate President Ron Kouchi spoke of the “daunting task” ahead of lawmakers this session, “the difficulty in dealing with the terrible tragedy that occurred on Maui” and the hope and optimism he drew from the positivity his fellow senators exhibited prior to the morning’s opening session.

“In watching the body language and the camaraderie, you give me great hope and optimism about what we will be able to accomplish in the upcoming session.”

And, to be sure, the agendas in both chambers will start with issues raised by the fires.

Saiki noted the work House members engaged in since the end of the last session, including an interim agenda “that was appropriately and abruptly changed in August.”

In particular, Saiki pointed to the six bipartisan working groups he convened in the wake of the fires to address issues surrounding food, water and other supplies; shelter; environmental remediation; jobs and business; schools; and wildfire prevention. Based on the recommendations of those groups, the House is pushing a wide-ranging package of bills to address immediate and long-term needs related to these areas.

Saiki also touted the Red Hill Water Alliance Initiative report, which he said “charts a pro-active course of remediation so that decades, and perhaps even a century from now, future residents aren’t poisoned by the nearly two million gallons of fuel in the ground slowly making its way to the water table.”

Saiki invoked the concept of “centering Hawaii,” which he learned from kumu hula Hina Wong Kalu, as a guiding principle for the upcoming session.

“I have been pondering what it means for us, as legislators, to center Hawaii, to put the present and future well-being of

this unique place, and the people of this place at the center of our actions and decisions,” he said. “It would mean, for example, to say that among the many needs and wants presenting themselves in the wake of the fires, that the needs and the well-being of local people of Maui and the residents of Lahaina come first.

“To center Hawaii would require us to acknowledge that land is no longer the limiting factor of what we do because if we don’t center the well-being of our water as a fundamental public trust responsibility, all our affordable housing and economic development and even our conservation efforts won’t matter,” he continued. “And centering Hawaii is to center Aloha and the working principles of aloha, as did many in the days and weeks following the great fire.”

On the Senate side, Kouchi said fire mitigation and stewardship and management of land will be top priorities, not just for Maui but every island.

Kouchi said the Senate will also consider how the immediate impacts of the fire on Maui have had rippling effects on the entire state.

“Clearly, to get reasonable housing choices for the displaced residents and to make sure that there are choices for those who are not displaced but affected by the shortage of units that were lost is going to be at the top of our list,” he said. “But that housing shortage exists across the state. And as you talk to employers, clearly the lack of affordable housing is the biggest impediment in recruiting or retaining employees.”

Kouchi stressed that continued attention will be paid to easing the burden on so-called ALICE (asset-limited, income-constrained, employed) families through initiatives like the universal pre-K, spearheaded by Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke.

“There is no argument that if you go to preschool, you have better educational outcomes during your K through 12 years,” Kouchi said. “So we are trying to create a more level playing field for every child in the state to have a good foundation to make sure that they can maximize their educational opportunities. But in particular, to the ALICE families, it costs anywhere from  $1.500 to $1,800 a month for child care. And if we can create the opportunity to have that child in pre-K, where they’re getting the educational foundation and the parents can be at ease knowing that their children are in safe spaces learning and they will not have to pay the monthly childcare bill, it is again how we are interrelated, how it all ties in, how it all works.”

Kouchi said he also sees beneficial interconnectedness in efforts like promoting locally sourced food for school lunches, thereby providing students with fresher, healthier meals while also supporting local agriculture. He also cited a new initiative to plant sunflowers on former plantation land. The sunflowers will be processed to produce oil for a renewable energy fuel and the residual product will be used to feed cattle. Meanwhile, using the land will prevent it from growing fallow, thereby mitigating a potential fire hazard.

Again, the aftermath of the fires and the ongoing recovery is expected to have a significant impact on the state budget and individual legislative priorities. However, Kouchi said prescient budgetary decisions and other factors may soften the blow.

The Senate president noted that the level federal support has been unprecedented, surpassing what was provided in the wake of Hurricane Iniki more than 30 years ago. The Legislature last session also set aside $500 million for the rainy day fund and, as Kouchi quipped, “it’s raining now.”

Further, federal funding was put into the general fund or cash CIP projects, not personnel programs that would require recurring payment.

“We could take that cash and deploy it toward some of our Maui efforts and then if those capital projects are important, then we still have the ability to go out in the traditional way and float bonds to be able to put in those infrastructure improvements,” Kouchi said. “If it’s highway related, we have learned from other flooding disasters across the state that there is a federal highway disaster fund. So anything road related, we would also be able to reach out to the federal government to get assistance that way.”

Kouchi also pointed to the most recent Council on Revenues forecast, which compared to a June forecast that found the state down a billion dollars was far less dire than many had feared.

“I think from a budget standpoint, with some of the previous decisions and the current Council report, we should be OK,” Kouchi said.