Tax reforms, agriculture and housing make up the lion’s share of the bills supported by the state Legislature’s majority and minority caucuses.
The first deadline of the 2026 legislative session passed on Friday, with state caucuses large and small required to submit their legislative packages by the end of the week.
House Republicans were the most ambitious of the House and Senate minority and majority caucuses, submitting 28 bills covering a wide range of subjects.
Kapolei Rep. Diamond Garcia, House Minority Floor Leader, unveiled the House Minority package on Thursday, but was frank about many measures’ odds of becoming law.
Several of the bills in the House Minority package are holdover proposals from the 2025 session, including House Bill 283, a measure that would eliminate the state individual income tax altogether. Last year, that measure was dead on arrival and was never scheduled for any committee hearing; this year, the measure has not yet been referred to any committee.
Garcia said Thursday that other states, such as Florida, have eliminated their income taxes and saw their revenues increase.
“When the people have more money, it creates jobs, it stirs the economy, more production happens and in the end the state gets more revenue,” Garcia said, although he added that the measure’s chances of passing are “slim to none.”
Another holdover was HB 281, which would exempt food and groceries from the state’s General Excise Tax, which Rep. David Alcos said would save a family of four $687 per year. Like HB 283, 281 made no progress last year.
Other holdover measures from 2025 include:
• HB 286, a bill that would increase the maximum annual tax deduction for individual housing account (the bill survived both the House and Senate last year, but failed to pass conference committees at the session’s end)
• HB 289, a measure requiring the state Department of Education to prohibit the use of cell phones and social media during school days (the bill was DOA last year)
• HB 295, which would allow people on the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands’ waitlist to bequeath their waitlist position to their next-of-kin (the bill died after passing second reading last year)
• HB 298, which would limit all legislators to no more than 12 years in office (DOA last year)
Meanwhile, the House Minority package also includes several new bills, such as HB 1761, an election reform measure that requires, among other things, at least one voter service center to exist in each county council district, state-published voter and ballot data after each election and a prohibition on ranked-choice voting.
Mililani Rep. Lauren Matsumoto said Thursday that the caucus’ package was developed after three years of public input, synthesizing thousands of citizen concerns into legislation.
“What we got back … was the same top three issues: cost of living, crime, corruption and government reform,” Matsumoto said.
The House Majority Caucus, on the other hand, submitted a svelte package of four bills, all of which are holdovers from last year. Those bills include one establishing a “Farm to Families” program that would provide funds to food banks to purchase Hawai‘i-grown produce, and measures appropriating unspecified funds for teachers, workforce rental housing and programs reintegrating prison inmates into society.
The Senate Minority Caucus’ package was also slim, consisting of five bills. Two of those measures, Senate bills 1 and 1006, prohibit foreign parties from owning agricultural lands or any land within 10 miles of a military installation.
Another two Senate Minority bills would deter the state from transporting homeless people between Hawai‘i and other states. SB 1007 would create an “Interstate Collaboration on Homelessness” wherein Hawai‘i and other states would collaborate on other methods to address homelessness, while SB 1005 would amend the lieutenant governor’s official job duties to include “preventing other jurisdictions from making or supporting … travel arrangements to Hawai‘i for homeless or unhoused individuals.”
The fifth Senate Minority measure, Senate Bill 2, requires state agencies to plant fruit trees whenever possible in their landscaping.
The Senate Majority Caucus’ package was the smallest, with zero bills at all. However, the caucus’ stated priorities this session include housing assistance programs, economic diversification, the preservation of various health care programs and more.
Aloha State Daily reached out to Garcia for further comment.
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