As the new year dawns, so too do a swath of new laws set to take effect Jan. 1.
While many state bills take effect the instant they are signed into law or on July 1, the start of the fiscal year, many others are intended take effect at the start of the new year following their passage.
Here are some of the new things to keep in mind under the new laws:
• You can’t park too close to a crosswalk. A new parking regulation takes effect Jan. 1, courtesy of Act 171, which prohibits vehicles from parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk or intersection, “regardless of the presence or absence of official signs or curb markings.”
A vehicle can still park in that 20-foot buffer zone only if it’s an emergency vehicle, a government vehicle, or a broken-down vehicle. Drivers can also pause in the buffer zone when yielding to an emergency vehicle.
Violating these regulations will result in a $50 fine.
• Taxes on draft beer will go down. In 2025, draft beer was subject to a lower tax rate than “beer other than draft beer." The 2025 rate was $0.54 per wine gallon for draft beer, and $0.93 per wine gallon for other beers.
But state law also defined “draft beer” as beer sold in an individual container of seven or more gallons, which lawmakers and advocates found was out-of-step with industry practices. Act 90, passed this year, noted that most retailers, bars and small brewers sell what is commonly referred to as “draft beer” out of kegs smaller than seven gallons.
Consequently, Act 90 changes the definition of “draft beer” to mean “beer in an individual container of five gallons or more,” allowing more sellers to take advantage of the lower tax rate.
• But taxes on cigarettes will go up. In Sept. 2002, the state cigarette tax was $0.05 for each cigarette sold. By 2011, following a years-long string of incremental tax hikes, the tax was $0.16 per cigarette, where it sat for years.
But Act 95 increases the tax once more to $0.18 per cigarette sold. The law also stipulates that some of those tax revenues will go to the state’s cancer research special fund.
• The state TAT will go up again. The state’s tax on transient accommodation rental proceeds has been 9.25% since 2010. As of today, under Act 96, it will increase again to an even 10%.
Cruise ship operators will have to pay an 11% TAT rate beginning today under the same law.
• State vehicle insurance requirements will double. Currently, the state requires drivers to have a vehicle insurance policy that includes liability coverage of at least $20,000 per person and at least $10,000 for all damages arising from an accident.
Under 2024’s Act 138, those minimums will double: coverage of at least $40,000 per person and at least $20,000 for accident damage.
Fines for driving without vehicle insurance will also increase, although they won’t double: the fine for a first offense will remain $500, but a subsequent offense within five years will increase from a minimum of $1,500 to a minimum of $2,000.
• Pharmacy technicians will need to be licensed. Act 93 requires that pharmacies must only employ registered pharmacy techs to carry out tasks including “filling, packaging, manipulative, repetitive or other nondiscretionary tasks.”
Pharmacy tech licenses must be renewed by the end of each odd-numbered year, and will require an unspecified fee.
• Kayak rental companies will need to register their vessels. As part of an effort to limit the impacts of over-tourism on state waterways, Act 128 imposes registration requirements on rental watercraft.
The law specifically notes “the proliferation of rental kayaks and stand-up paddleboards statewide,” and imposes new requirements on any vessel rented or leased to traverse “navigable waters of a state park” — which truthfully only applies to Kaua‘i's Wailuā River, Ahupua‘a ‘O Kahana State Park on O‘ahu and the Kealakekua Bay State Historical Park on Hawai‘i Island.
Beginning Jan. 1, rental vessels used in state parks must be registered with the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ State Parks Division and display a registration number.
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